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Aviation Week 

and Space Technology 


75 Cents 


A McGraw-Hill Publication 

■ 


October 2, 1961 
SPECIAL REPORT: 

Roving Lunar 
Vehicles 



First Saturn Flight Booster 


The task of Aerojet-General's 
Ordnance Division 
is the sophisticated 
manipulation of force. 

Our ordnance research, explosives control 

development, test, 
and manufacturing facilities 
are the finest 
in American industry. 


WARHEADS /SAFETY AND FUZING SYSTEMS I COUNTERMEASURES 
EXPLOSIVE FORMING / IGNITION SYSTEMS / CHEMICAL KINETICS 
SEPARATION AND DESTRUCT SYSTEMS / AEROSOL PHYSICS 
HYPERVELOCITY SYSTEMS AND RESEARCH 




space systems planniny and 
cnyineeriny in a unique ride 


The scientists and engineers of Aerospace Corporation arc in the fore- 
front of advanced planning and general systems engineering. Their unique 
role: critical civilian link uniting government and the scientific-industrial 
team developing space systems and advanced ballistic missiles. In this 
mission Aerospace Corporation provides advanced systems analysis and 
planning, theoretical and experimental research, initial systems engineer- 
ing, initial technical direction and general technical supervision. Specific 
activities include investigation of techniques for improving the state-of- 
the-art in propulsion, structures, guidance, communications and other 
engineering skills related to missile/space missions; feasibility studies 
of new weapons systems concepts and preliminary design of promising 
systems; .formulation of development programs; conduct of critical 
experiments; technical supervision of the development and test program. 
Immediate assignments exist for those highly skilled in these specialties 
and who are knowledgeable in inter-disciplinary problem solving. 
Men with advanced degrees are urged to contact Mr. Herndon, Aero- 
space Corporation, Room 101, P.O. Box 95081, Los Angeles 45, Calif. 


Organized in 


si and dedicated to providing objective 
idvancemenl end application of space si 
technology for the United Stales Co 



AEROSPACE CORPORATION 




AVIATION CALENDAR 



(Continued on page 6) 







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the Standard Cherrylock in the 
longer grips. Both types are installed 
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head, using existing Cherry guns. 

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widest grip range available — only 
with the Cherrylock Team — result 
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Cherrylock Team provides the 
strongest mechanical lock — flush 
fracture rivet available. Positive 
visual inspection after installation — 
with grip length marked on the rivet 
head — is offered only by the 
Cherrylock Team. 

For technical data on the Cherry- 
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ESTABLISHED 1816 • BEAVER FALLS, PA. 


AVIATION WEEK 


AVIATION CALENDAR 


(Continued fro in page 5) 

Oct. 14-22— Federation Aqronaiitiquc In 
nationalc 1961 General Conference. Ill 
Quintandinha, Rio dc Janeiro. Brazil. 
Oct. 1 5-20— Fall General Meeting. Amiri. 
Institute of Electrical Engini 
Hilton Hotel, Detroit, Midi. 

Oct. 16-19— Eighth Annual 


Statlcr- 


Jtional Cong 


rnational 


Organiza 

Technology, Sheraton-Park Hotel. Wash- 
ingtou. D. C. 

Oct. 17-19— Lubrication Conference. Mom- 
son Hotel, Chicago, 111. Sponsors: Ameri. 
can Society of Lubrication Engineers; 
American Society of Mechanical Engi- 

Oct. 18-19— Ninth Annual Safety Forum, 
Air Line Pilots Assn., Del Prado Hotel, 
Chicago, in. 

Oct. 19— General \\ ration Safety Commit- 
tee. National Safety Council, Conrad Hil- 
ton Hotel, Chicago. III. 

Oct. 23-24— Joint Meeting, Canadian Aero- 
nautical Institute/ Institute of the Aero- 
space Sciences, Ottawa, Canada. 

Oct. 23-24— International Airline Naviga- 

Paris. France. Uropea " egl “ tC mg ' 
Oct. 23-25-East Coast Conference on Aero 

c of Radio Engine ' ' 


e Hotel, Baltim 


:, Md. 


Oct. 23-27— 17th Annual General Meeting. 
International Air Transport Assn.. Sydney. 

Oct. 23-Nov. 3— William Tell 1961, USAF 
Interceptor Weapons Meet, Tyndall AFB, 
Fla. Host: Air Defense Command. 

Oct. 24-26— Air Traffic Conference, Air 
Transport Assn., Marriott Twin Bridges 
Motor Hotel, Washington, D. C. 

Oct. 24-26— International Symposium on 
Aero-Space Nuclear Propulsion, IRE, 
Riviera Hotel. Las Vegas, Nev. 

Oct. 24-26— Air Transport Assn.'s Engineer- 


Oct. 


5-27-/ 


Hotel, Mon 


: Mam 


i, Fla. 
n, South- 


Assn, of Load Transport Airlines, Sahara 
Hotel, Las Vegas. Nev. 

Oct. 26-27 — Third Annual Symposium on 
High-Speed Testing, Hotel Somerset, 
Boston. Mass. Sponsor: Plas-Tech Equip- 

Oct. 30-31— Aero/Space Fluid Power Con- 
ference, Pick-Fort Shelby Hotel. Detroit, 
Mich. Sponsor: Aero Hydraulics Division 
of Vickers, Inc. 

Oct, 30-Nov. 1-Annual Meeting, Air Traffic 
Control Assn., Deauville Hotel. Miami 
Beach, Fla. 

Nov. 1-3— “Issues and Challenges of Air 
Transportation" Symposium. Hartford. 
Conn. Sponsor: Connecticut General Life 


Insi 


e Co. 


Nov. 6-8— Special Technical Conference on 
Non-Linear Magnetics. Institute of Radio 
Engineers, Statlcr Hilton Hotel, Los 
Angeles, Calif. 

Nov. 6-9-1961 Conference and AtomFair, 
Atomic Industrial Forum and American 
Nuclear Society, Conrad Hilton Hotel, 
Chicago, 111. 

ind SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


WESTINGHOUSE BRUSHLESS GENERATORS . . . flight proved on both 


tercial and military aircraft 



NEWEST JET TRANSPORT/ NEWEST ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM 


Advanced Westinghouse electric power systems featuring 
unique starter/generators have been selected for the new 
Boeing 727 jet transports. 

The Westinghouse equipment will serve first as powerful 
jet engine starters, then operate as brushless a-c gen- 
erators to supply the sleek transports with electric power. 
This brushless starter /generator will utilize a rectifier 
assembly of high temperature silicon diodes, which have 
achieved outstanding performance on Boeing Jetliners 


and major military aircraft. Silicon diodes are used 
instead of carbon brushes, commutators and slip rings 
. . . resulting in greater reliability — increased TBO and 
reduced maintenance costs. 

Complete aircraft electric power systems and utilization 
equipment including starter /generators, generators, con- 
trol panels, regulators, motors and transformer-rectifier 
units are all designed and built by the Aerospace Electri- 
cal Department, Lima, Ohio. You can be sure ... if its 


Westinghouse 


| Flight Propulsion 



G.E. Tests Electric Engine Types for Space Missions 


higher power ranges at specific impulse 


test at General Electric. 

Three basic engine types — arc jet, 
plasma accelerator, and ion engine — 
constitute the line. Models of each 
type are currently in operation at the 
Company's Flight Propulsion Labora- 
tory Department in Cincinnati. 

Under NASA contract, G.E. has test- 
demonstrated a 30KW, a-c powered 
arc jet engine that develops one-half 
pound of thrust. Performance exhibited 

fer to stationary satellite orbits, and 
placing communication satellites in pre- 


Plasma accelerators, second in G.E.’s 



Typical of Ion engines on test of General 
Electric is this advanced design XE-701-4 
model, whose efficiency was theoretically 
doubled with a new computer program. 


Ion engines, whose specific impulses 
can theoretically rise to several hun- 
dred thousand seconds, are expected 
by G.E. to prove ideal for long dura- 
tion space trips such as interplanetary 
missions. Since 1958, when General 
Electric engineers ran one of indus- 
try's first ion engines, continuing re- 
search and development has produced 


Flight Propulsion Laboratory Depart- 



to space power generation plants. G.E.’s 
intention is to produce the needed 
answers before power or propulsion 
system development gets into expensive 
hardware stages. 

A basic element of the studies will be 
to identify “internal” compatibility 
problems of electrical space systems. 
For example, it appears that arc jet 
engines, to fulfill long-life requirements, 
•nay require voltage input somewhat 
higher than considered optimum for 
generator design. Where, then, should 
a total system compromise be estab- 
lished? 

VARIABLES TO BE INTEGRATED 

G.E.’s answers to this and other 
typical questions will integrate a vast 
number of “internal” variables in en- 
gine and turbogenerator design, ex- 
tending when necessary into the areas 
of turbine and boiler flow control, and 

Studies will be heavily influenced by 
consideration of mission duty cycles 
anticipated for future space power/ 
propulsion systems. As a typical ex- 


A number of component develop- 
ment programs are also contributing 
to G.E.’s ion engine program. Among 
them are studies investigating methods 

determining electrical conductance in 
cesium vapor; developing a system for 
feeding cesium propellants to ion en- 
gines; and neutralizing electrical space 


ample, extended periods of engine-off 
condition during space travel forces 
a study of power dumping methods. 
Should the power system’s total out- 
put be modulated by reactor and tur- 
bine control? Or should the power be 
fed into dummy loads, maintaining the 
powerplant at full rated conditions? 

IMPORTANT INSIGHTS FORESEEN 

Answers to such questions, believes 
General Electric, will provide badly 
needed insight into means of optimizing 
soon-to-come power/propulsion systems 
for each envisioned mission. Broad 
knowledge to be gained by the G-E 
studies center around two fundamental 
questions: 

— What can be realistically done with 
present technology? 

— What areas will require additional 
applied research to make needed sys- 
tems practical? 

With accelerated space schedules 
tending to compress development 
cycles, G-E management believes that 
the answers attained — and questions 
anticipated — by these studies will per- 

future space power/propulsion system 
development costs. 


HEW STUDIES TO EXPLORE SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY 


NEWS 


SPECIAL REPORT 


New Computer Program Speeds 
Ion Engine Design Solutions 




configurations can now be 
d accurately evaluated by a 
new digital computer program de- 
veloped at G.E.'s Flight Propulsion 
Laboratory Department. 

In a typical project, the computer 
system recently evolved a new ion 
engine configuration that is expected 
to have double the efficiency of its 
forerunner. Design of the new engine, 
designated the XE-701-4, was quickly 
refined by the computer so that direct 
interception of the ion beam with the 
electrodes is virtually eliminated. (Such 300 kilowatt 
beam interception reduces engine life by the turbin 
and efficiency, both extremely impor- beneath the v 

CONTRACTED BY NASA 
The fully automated compute: 



rom the reactor (right) is 
ste heat is dispersed inti 
le larger end of the enclc 


New Facilities Boost Space Power Research 


NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center 


sectional engineering drawing of the 
engine defines all evaluation points in 

Once this programming has been set 
up, each of the 100 to 200 sweeps by 
the computer through a 4000-point 
mesh requires less than two seconds. 

Comparable times are required to 
compute such factors as ion accelerat- 
ing forces and space charge densities. 

vious runs are repeated until desired 
accuracy is achieved. 

Speed of a typical analysis is such 
that a complete evaluation of a new 
engine can be completed in less than an 
hour, including analysis of initial ion 
velocities and space charge. 


50KW, 1600°F alkali 

cently at General Electric's Space Proj- 
ects Laboratory in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Its initial research projects will in- 
vestigate heat transfer characteristics 

which are used as working fluids in 
nuclear turbogenerators for space. 
Several larger, more versatile metal 


bogenera' 

systems which combine a nuclear re- 

electrical generators. Alkali metals 
such as potassium and sodium are used 
as working fluids. Such systems will 
>wer for electrical propulsion, 
equipment, and life support. 


electro: 


t fac 

planning and construction at the Labo- 
ratory. Within a few weeks, a 300KW 
facility designed to operate at 1850°F 
will be completed. Following in the 
near future will be a 100KW, 2200°F 
unit and a 3000KW, 1850°F unit. 

TYPIFY G-E GROWTH 
These facilities typify a growing re- 
search complex at G.E.’s Flight Pro- 
pulsion Laboratory Department here 




of I: 




ig systems for space 
been under way since early in 1957. 
General Electric is presently focus- 


tivities in basic technology, component 
development, and system analysis. 

HEAT TRANSFER STUDIED 
In a program under NASA contract, 
the Laboratory is conducting boiling 
and condensing experiments on po- 

transfer characteristics and provide de- 
sign data for space power system heat 
transfer components in the 1200” to 
2200“F temperature range. 

Another NASA-supported program 
entails demonstrating a potassium- 
vapor turbine applicable to large space 
power systems. In the 3000KW facility 
under construction, t 


G-E ARC JET SUCCESSFULLY RUN ON A-C POWER 




ogy was announced by General Electric 
recently after the Company successfully 
developed and ran a 30KW engine that 
operates on alternating current. 

The new engine has met thrust and 
specific impulse levels specified by 
NASA, which granted the development 

Initial work with arc jet engines 
throughout industry was concentrated 
on d-c powered designs because of their 
relative simplicity. But space power 
generation systems currently under de- 
velopment tend toward high frequency, 
multi-phase alternating current because 
it permits lighter-weight systems. 

A-C APPROACH ELECTED 

Despite many problems inherent to 
a-c arc jet development, G.E. elected 
to follow this approach. It recognized 
its important value in eliminating rec- 
tifiers and other weighty components 


1800"F, 500KW 

than 2000 ht 
ind several other 
are being 


:o have 


ignition takes place only once, it was 
suspected that with three-phase a-c 
the arc might be extinguished and that 
there would be problems of re-ignition. 

COMPUTER PROVES SOLUTION 
However a computer program, sup- 
ported by later experiments, proved 
that while only two electrodes would 
be conducting at any one time and the 
third arc would be extinguished, an in- 
herent voltage transient would insure 
re-ignition of the extinguished arc. 

Under another program for NASA, 
General Electric is determining the 
most attractive missions for this a-c 
arc jet engine. Studies are centering 


research 
rdinated by 
space power 


eady when 
s integration into fut 




a satellite 


ion of ci 


e orbits 


power/propulsion s 


Electric Company, Section 110-07, 
Schenectady 5, New York, and ask for 
a free copy of GED-4442, "Electric 
Power/Propulsion for Space." 

Progress Is Our Most Important Product 

GENERAL®) ELECTRIC 





A New Achievement in Precision 
Controls for Space Application 

Marquardt Documents 1,000, OOOth Pulse of 
Radiation Cooled Bipropellant Rockets 



The Marquardt Corporation today provides the aerospace 
industry with one of the most extensively documented rec- 
ords in the area of space propulsion controls systems and 
components. Be it part or package, Marquardt can prove 
a record of performance which insures reliable products de- 
livered on time and at minimum cost. For additional infor- 
mation contact R. L. Oblinger, Chief Application Engineer, 
Power Systems Division. 

Engineers experienced in these or related fields will find it 
rewarding to discuss career futures with Marquardt — an 
equal opportunity employer. 


/ CORPORATION 
CORPORATE OFFICES: VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA 


RADIATION COOLED THRUST CHAMBER RUN 

Continuous 46 minute run duration of radiation 
cooled thrust chamber with N,H. and N,0. dem- 
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DEMONSTRATED Isp EFFICIENCY 

This chart shows thrust efficiency increase ov 
slightly more than two years. Latest tests pro- 
an Isp of 310 seconds, during a ten minute ri 
at 0.01 PSIA. 







Military Electronics Division 



MOTOROLA 


All qualified applicants will t 
without regard fin 


msideration for employment d/Tle !' A rizona ^ 320 ^ E»i 


A TAPCO 

A DIVISION OF THOMPSON RAMO WOOLDRIDGE INC. 
23555 EUCLID AVENUE, CLEVELAND 17, OHIO 


The calling card of subcontractor versatility TAPCO is a major facility 

offering research, design, development and production of systems, subsystems and components to the missile, aircraft, 
ordnance, marine, electronic and nucleonic industries. Proof of the quality and advanced nature of TAPCO capabilities 
lies within such prominent programs as SNAP, Sunflower, Pershing, Bomarc, Terrier, Tartar, Polaris, Minuteman, F-105, 
B-58, B-70, X-15, Mercury, Dyna-Soar. ADVANCED ENERGY CONVERSION SYSTEMS: Closed-cycle Rankine turboelectric 
(water, mercury, potassium, organic); turbine APU's; MHD; thermionic; fuel cell. Energy sources employed include solar, 
nuclear reactor, stored thermal energy, chemical and cryogenic fuels. ADVANCED PROPULSION: Arc ion rockets; plasma 
accelerators; ion propellant feed systems; reaction flight control systems; attitude control systems; vector nozzles; vernier 
rockets. ADVANCED ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION AND CONTROL: Brushless alternator and static circuit systems 
operating from any energy source and in ambients to 1000F. Analog/digital servo subsystems. Static standby power 
supplies for uninterrupted transfer of power. INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL: Space vehicle temperature 
control; space vehicle atmosphere control; closed-cycle oxygen regeneration. MISSILE LAUNCH AND SUPPORT: Mobile, 
air-portable transporter-erector-launcher vehicles; integrated launching and control systems; special airborne and ground 
test equipment. UNDERSEA SYSTEMS: Propulsion and control; submarine detection systems; drag reduction; hydrogen 
generation; special hydrodynamic studies. FLUID SYSTEMS: Aircraft engine-driven, booster and after-burner fuel pumps; 
flow control and relief valves; linear and rotary hydraulic actuators. Cryogenic fluid systems; hot-gas servo systems. 
SPECIAL INSTRUMENT PRODUCTS: Weather and gas line instrumentation; precision magnetic storage devices; signal- 
conditioning subsystems. FM VIDEO TELEMETRY SYSTEMS: Broad-band transmitters and receivers; multiplexing; 
subcarrier channels; automatic servo-controlled tracking. MATERIALS TECHNOLOGY: Develop extrusion, forging, welding 
and coating processes for superalloys and refractory metals. Study liquid-metal corrosion. Perform applied research and 
application engineering for plastics, ceramics, high-strength metals and refractory metals for hot-gas servos, rocket- 
engine components, high-temperature motors and unusual power-generating equipment. 

13 



important 

6 seconds _ 

in a rocket motor’s life. Steel 


When the KD2U Drone Booster Rocket Motor blasts off to boost a missile or 
plane, its firing lasts for only 6 seconds. Then it goes into free fall. To get maxi- 
mum speed, weight had to be kept to a minimum without sacrifice of strength. 

USS "T-1" Constructional Alloy Steel filled the bill. "T-1" Steel has three 
times the yield strength of carbon steel. It delivers a high minimum yield strength 
of 100,000 psi. This permitted the missile motor case to be fabricated from plates 
only 0.313 inches thick. If steel with less strength had been used, weight of the 
motor case would have been greatly increased. Heavier casings would require 
more thrust and more fuel. Low cost fabrication. Intercontinental Manufactur- 
ing Company, Inc., of Garland, Texas, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Lionel 
Corporation, builds the KD2U Metal Booster case for North American Aviation's Rocketdyne Division. 
They found that USS "T-1” Steel could be readily shaped, forged and machined. It could be welded 
without impairing mechanical properties and no stress relieving was required. All these factors helped 
to reduce costs. For more information on USS “T-1" brand and other aircraft quality steels, write 
United States Steel, 525 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh 30, Pennsylvania. USS and "T-1" are regis- 
tered trademarks. 



United States Steel Corporation • American Steel and Wire Division • Columbia-Geneva Steel Division 
National Tube Division • Tennessee Coal and Iron Division • United States Steel Supply Division 
United States Steel Export Company 


United States Steel 



‘ 20/20 


For Navy’s surface-to-air Terrier missile, the SPG-55 Missile 
Guidance Radar by Sperry - shown above on the new missile 
frigate USS Dahlgren-provides “20/20” target acquisition and 
tracking, together with precision guidance of missile to target. 

Other radars by Sperry range from a portable field unit for 
detecting enemy vehicle and personnel movements in combat, 
to a network of giant area defense “fortress” radars on 24-hour 
air search duty continent- wide. Tracking, guidance, navigation, 
weather, tactical search, area defense -advanced Sperry radars 
are on duty in these and many other areas of commerce and 
defense -in-action evidence of one of the widest-ranging radar 
capabilities available today. General offices: Great Neck, N.Y. 



(I. to >.): USMC’s airliftable tacti&l early 
■"*“ ‘ battlefield surveillance radar; 


warning radar, TPS-34; diminutive Army PPS- . , 

Air Force APN-59 air navigation radar; commercial Radar 5 for small craft navi- 
gation: FPS-35 for USAF's Continental Aircraft Control and Warning System. 




Four ways 
to tell 

a true airlifter 

1. Loads from the rear 





2. Truck-bed height 


3. Paradrops big equipment 


4. Lands on short, rough fields 




A true airlifter is a special breed of bird— built without compromise for its special kind of work. 
Huge rear doors allow cargo to be loaded straight in. Cargo floor is truck-bed height; no hoisting cargo up 
and jockeying it arou'nd corners. Rear doors can be opened in flight for bulldozer-size paradrops. And a 
true airlifter need not be pampered with paving. It lands and takes off in sand and rough dirt, close to 
the action, just like a bush plane. Lockheed’s C-130 Hercules propjet is the true airlifter. Now in its second 
million miles of operation, 14 different versions are flying or being built for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, 
Marines, and Coast Guard— and for the air forces of Canada, Australia, and Indonesia. Newest model, 
C-130E, will soon haul huge cargoes on MATS’ worldwide routes. The big Lockheed/Georgia cargo 
jets of the future will be true airlifters, too; they will have the same four basic attributes Hercules has. 


Marietta, Georgia • A Division of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation 



Ga sots® ciz5\ 

COM RAN Y 


IVJiCKERt, hydraulics 


give AIR FORCE 



Aviation Week 

and Space Technology 






SEnl" ::::::::::::::::::::::: ,i 







5r5 




When a Polaris sub makes port, there’s a new 
crew waiting to take her out again. For America 
cannot spare her even one day. 

This platoon system keeps each sub and her 
16 Polaris missiles on station continuously. 

The deterrent power of Polaris grows steadily 
stronger-as longer-range versions- are perfected, 
and as more Polaris subs are commissioned. 

Lockheed is Polaris missile prime contractor, 
system manager. Major subcontractors: Aerojet- 
General, General Electric, Westinghouse. 


SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA • A GROUP DIVISION 
LOCKHEED AIRCRAFT CORPORATION 


j -11 


EDITORIAL 


The Military Space Role-Ill 


Since this series of editorials began early last month, 
the concern over defining and implementing the proper 
military role in the U. S. national space program has been 
growing. Last week in Philadelphia (see page 28), a dis- 
tinguished forum of leaders in the space field emphasized 
again the growing military threat from the Soviet space 
program, and the folly of our initial approach into as- 
signing top priority to non-military applications of space 
technology and excluding the military from pursuing a 
vigorous research and development program in this area 
adequate to meet the operational requirements that will 
inevitably be thrust upon it in the near future. We have 
also received a good deal of mail and comment indicat- 
ing that many of our readers are equally concerned over 
this problem, although some of them apparently mis- 
interpret our comments as a plea for complete military 
domination of the space effort. 

Although in retrospect this might have been feasible 
during the immediate pre-Sputnik period when the mili- 
tary already had a considerable capability to handle this 
assignment, it is certainly not feasible now with the 
existence of the National Aeronautics and Space Admin- 
istration. Nor is it really necessary to solve the problems 
created by the denigration of the military space role in 
the initial organization of NASA and the absurdities to 
which this intent has been carried in its early operations, 
particularly the Mercury program. 

Management Unification 

The requirements of NASA and a military space pro- 
gram have many similarities and many differences. What 
is really needed now is a management structure that 
effectively utilizes all of the current and future capa- 
bilities of both civil and military space organizations to 
explore all of the areas that both require, and to do all 
the applied research that both will need to develop 
operational systems. 

Despite all of the various stabs at NASA-Department 
of Defense liaison during the past few years, no such 
effective management pattern has yet emerged nor is 
there any sign that it is likely to from current discus- 
sions. There is no effective interface between NASA 
and the Air Force organizations where the bulk of the 
military space research and development capability is 
concentrated. 

The Department of Defense, in all of its various upper 
strata, must share considerable blame for this situation. 
Because of its top-heavy superstructure the Department 
of Defense handles all of its policy decision interfaces 
with NASA at a level far removed from the organizations 
and people within the military services who are most 


conversant with the military problems of space tech- 
nology and who organize and operate the research, de- 
velopment and test facilities where the bulk of this 
work is being done. This will indeed be a difficult prob- 
lem to solve because the Defense Department personnel 
now handling these vital matters arc firmly convinced 
they are experts on the subject and that they arc han- 
dling the problem well. They feel that the military space 
problem is a mirage seen only by blue-suited empire 
builders and mvopic editors. 

At an even lower level the military spacemen face 
another problem in the top echelons of the Air Force 
itself, where there is still an influential group working 
vigorously to prepare for World War II. It is convincing 
proof of the dynamic technology of our times that even 
the newest of the military' services, in existence for little 
more than a decade, already has its core of die-hard 
conservatives holding fast to the technical environment 
in which they matured. 

Budget Conscious 

This "kick the tire" school views the new technologies 
with alarm and misgiving because of the increasing in- 
crements of the service budget they are absorbing and 
because of the possibility that they could force manned 
atmosphere-bound vehicles into a secondary military role. 

These military conservatives apparently want to wait 
until all of the basic research and development in space 
technology has been done -by NASA and then decide at 
their leisure whether there are indeed any military ap- 
plications of this technology'. Unfortunately, the pace 
of these galloping technologies will not permit this type 
of approach without inviting inevitable national dis- 
aster. It should be obvious to all by now that the Soviets 
have clearly grasped the political and military implica- 
tions of the new technologies and are pressing at the 
hardest pace within their capabilities to take full advan- 
tage of them. 

What is really required to resolve the space problems 
that are pressing upon us so urgently is a basic new' look 
at the goals of our national program and how we can 
best achieve them with the resources already available 
and those that must be obtained in the foreseeable 
future. Out of this new look must come a more effective 
planning and working liaison between NASA and the 
real military space leaders. Since neither the Department 
of Defense nor NASA is likely to take the initiative in 
this area, it appears to be an opportunity for the National 
Aeronautics and Space Council, in its new and vigorous 
form, to step in as the catalyst that is so badly needed. 

—Robert Hotz 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, Octc 



NOW PCM TELEMETRY SYSTEMS 
... for millivolt data inputs! 


Now on short delivery schedules . . . Texas Instruments 
offers high accuracy pulse code modulation telemetry 
systems for millivolt, high level or combination inputs. 
The complete PCM system shown is a lightweight, 0.9 
cubic foot package that multiplexes and encodes 196 
analog channels to eight-bit accuracy and processes six 
digital data inputs. Output information rate is 173,000 
bits per second. The system’s unique zero and full scale 
digital servo loop corrects system drift and gain change 
to assure overall system accuracy of ±0.4% in missile 
environments. Precision low-level electronic commuta- 


tion is accomplished with less than ±20 microvolt offset 
error over a 0 to 70° C temperature range. 

PCM encoding and decoding is only one of several 
advanced data link projects at TI. Others include 
millivolt oscillators, signal conditioners, solid-state trans- 
mitters, FM/FM systems, advanced microwave com- 
ponents, programmers, command and control systems, 
and space electronics. For detailed information on TI’s 
capability to meet your particular requirements, contact 
MARKETING DEPARTMENT. 


APPARATUS DIVISION 

ANO HOUSTON. TEXAS 



Texas Instruments 

INCORPORATED 

6000 LEMMON AVENUE 


WHO'S WHERE 


In the Front Office 

Robert C. Jackson, president, Ryan Aero- 
nautical Co.. San Diego. Calif., succeeding 
T. Claude Ryan who continues as board 
chairman and chief executive officer. 

I. Ncvin Pallev, executive vice president. 

•’ N. 1. 


CCS! 


>V right Corp., Wood-Ridge. N. 
a Aircraft Co.. Wichita. Kan.. 1 


i the 




cngii 


Boettger, to direct company- 
ctivitics: Delbert L. Roskam. 
manufacturing and 


Gerald A. Busch, vice president-market- 
ing. Grand Central Rocket Co., Redlands. 

Philip B. Taylor, formerly Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Air Force for Materiel, elected 
a director of General Precision Equipment 
Corp.. Tarrvtown. N. Y. 

John C. " Barnes, vice president, Hycon 
Mfg. Co.. Monrovia, Calif. 

Charles E. Ducommun, Los Angeles in- 
dustrialist, a director of Lockheed Aircraft 
Corp., Burbank. Calif. 

Kent R. Manning, a vice president of 
Acroqnip Corp., Jackson. Mich., has been 
named general manager of the newly formed 

Richard C. Kopcrck, vice president and 
treasurer. Hallamore Division of Sicglcr 
Corp.. Anaheim. Calif. 

Jack G. Anderson, vice president-market- 
ing. Kollsman Instrument Corp., Elmhurst, 
N. Y. 

Peter J. Schenk, formerly executive vice 
president of The Mitre Corp., has formed 
his own company in Alexandria, Va„ to spe- 
cializc in defense management planning. 

Herbert A. May, Jr., assistant to the board 
chairman of The Martin Co., Baltimore, 
Md. Roland Carlson succeeds Mr. May as 
assistant to the president, 

Capt. Richard L. Duncan (USN, ret.), 

scientist of United Aircraft Corp.. East 
Hanford. Conn. 

Sanford M. Harris has been appointed 
resident staff assistant in Western Europe 
for the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences, 
with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. 

George Moore, depute director of the 
Federal Aviation Agency’s Flight Standards 
Service. Washington. D. C„ succeeding 
George C. Prill, who is now director of 
Flight Standards Service. A. L. Coulter re- 
places Mr. Moore as chief. Flight Standards 
Division of FA.A’s Southwest Region. 

Col. Charles E. Carson, deputy com- 
ntandcr. and Col. Kenneth W. Gallup, chief 
of staff. USAF’s Office of Aerospace Re- 
search. Washington. D. C. 

British Aircraft Corp.. Ltd.. London. Eng- 
land. has announced the following appoint- 
ments: Sir George Edwards, managing di- 
rector: the Rt. Hon. Viscount Gildccotc, 

live (guided weapons): Marshal of The Royal 
Air Force Sir Dermot Bovlc. responsible for 
coordinating the administration of personnel 
and training and education. Also: Sir George 
will become deputy chairman of Vickers- 
Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd. A. W. E. Hough- 
ton will succeed Sir George as managing 


>r of that 


impany. 


INDUSTRY OBSERVER 

► Five-stage Nova space vehicle is being considered by National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration Marshall Space Flight Center (AW June 19, 
p. 32). It would have eight 1.3-million-lb. thrust Rockctdync F-l engines 
in its first stage; eight 200.000-lb. thrust Rockctdync J-2 engines in the 
second: two J-2s in the third: six 15,000-lb. thrust Pratt & Whitney LR-115S 
in the fourth stage, and two LR-1 1 5s in the fifth stage. 

► Fluorine-hydrogen rocket stage known as Draco is being evaluated by Air 
Force and NASA for possible use on Atlas or Titan. It is being proposed 
by Space Technology laboratories and Bell Acrosystcms. 

► Growth version of the USAF Minuteman solid propellant intercontinental 
missile is scheduled to be developed in time to be deployed in silos of the 
fifth wing. Boeing is to submit proposed final configuration to Air Force 
Systems Command by Jan. 1 and operational hardware is due to be ready 
by 1964. Ablative Avcote heat protection on the present version may be 

3 laced by cork on the new version. First four Minuteman wings are 
edulcd for Air Force bases at Malmstrom, Mont.; Ellsworth, S.D.; Minot, 
N.D.. and Whiteman, Mo. 

► NASA is studying a three-stage, solid-propellant space vehicle based on 
its four-stage solid Scout and known as Ram. It would use an Aerojet Junior 
motor, which produces 57,000 lb. of thrust compared with Scout’s 110.000- 
lb. thrust Aerojet Senior, as its first stage. Upper stages would be the 
Herculcs-Allegany Antarcs and Altair, which are the third and fourth stages 
of Scout. 

► Soviet turbojet engine for which India is negotiating for possible use in 
its HF-24 supersonic fighter is the VK-7, a follow-on to the Klimov VK-5 
used in the Russian MiG-19 fighter. It is reported to offer perfomiance 
comparable with the Bristol Siddelev Orpheus 12, which develops 8,170 lb. 
of thrust with afterburning. Company has flown the Orpheus 12 for about 
25 hr. at its own expense but apparently is not ready to spend more without 
government support. India is objecting to paying development costs, esti- 
mated at about $4 million, if it is built in India under license. 

► General Precision. Inc., has launched a company-financed research effort 
aimed at an all solid-state inertial guidance system that would have no 
moving parts and require no warm-up time. Company has been working on 
a nuclear spin gyroscope under Aeronautical Systems Division sponsorship 
for several years. 

► Some NASA officials believe that astronauts should not begin training 
for Apollo missions until 18 months before expected flight time. Based 
on experience in the Mercury program, they feel that man is the most 
predictable part of the system and that Apollo spacecraft engineering 
should get the major emphasis for the next two years. 

► Martin-Dcnver studies of logistics problems involved in moving large 
space boosters included sending crews over various routes with inflated 22-ft. 
dia. plastic balloons cradled on low trailers. Studies concluded that a 
booster that large could be moved by road with extremely close route 
planning, but only if some obstacles could be by-passed and a number 
of utility lines moved. 

► Latest cost estimates on several major Air Force missile and satellite pro- 
grams arc running considerably higher than those made a year ago. USAF 
may be forced to request more funds than anticipated for Fiscal 1963 or 
prune heavily on other programs. 

► Vought Astronautics is conducting a study of the launch-from-orbit 
technique for NASA. Study is known as OLO, for orbital launch operations. 

► Midas III infrared early warning satellite, launched last July 12 from Pt. 
Arguello, Calif., attained a near-perfect circular polar orbit at a 2,128-mi. 
altitude. Eccentricity is 0.000127 and period is 160.93 min. Inertial 
velocity was 14,266 mph. 


AVIATION WEEK 


SPACE TECHNOLOGY, Ode 



Sometime this year, CENTAUR will be spaceborne. Already, the projected uses of CENTAUR bear 
fascinating implications for the future . . . placing a satellite in an orbit so exacting that it will remain 
in one spot over the earth’s surface . . . soft landings on lunar and planetary bodies . . . timed launchings 
of several satellites from a single vehicle. Several major guidance functions will be performed in 
CENTAUR by a compact digital computer system from Librascope. It weighs 62 pounds, occupies 
little more than % cubic foot. A note to Librascope outlining your control problems will brine a prompt 
answer from the country’s most versatile manufacturer of computer control systems. 



LIBRASCOPE DIVISION | 






GENERAL PRECISION INC.. GLENDALE 1. CALIFORNIA 


Military Space 


GE Satellite Decision 


Naval Cannonade 


Anti-Jamming Plan 


Washington Roundup 

Statements on tlic military importance of space continue to come from unexpected 
quarters. James E. Webb, National Aeronautics and Space Administration chief, told 
a Minneapolis audience last week that if Soviet Russia should surpass the U. S. in space, 
"their space technology in its military aspects will jeopardize our security.” He said 
master)- of space by the U. S. is "essential insurance.” 

Four weeks ago, NASA Associate Administrator Robert C. Seamans, Jr., said the 
same things in the same words (AW Sept. 4, p. 29). Congressmen and military officers 
have been emphasizing the military potential of space in recent weeks (see p. 28). but 
such recognition directly from NASA officials is unusual. 

F.isenliower Administration policy required leaders of the civilian space agency to 
avoid references to military threats in space, partly because the former President ob- 
jected to the concept of a “race" with Russia and partly for international propaganda 

Question raised by the current NASA comments is whether there is indeed a 
growing appreciation of the military' potential of spaceflight or whether this is a part of 
the Kennedy Administration's talk-tough policy resulting from the Berlin situation. 


General Electric’s abrupt decision to drop its bid for a share in ownership of a 
commercial communications satellite system (p. 35) resulted primarily from concern of 
its top officials that efforts made by its subsidiary. Communication Satellites, Inc., had 
unintentionally strengthened the hands of those who favor government ownership. 

GE found itself an unwitting aid in stirring charges of monopoly and big-busincss 
domination against American Telephone & Telegraph Co.— accusations that sometimes 
arc levelled at GE itself. Final straw may hare been a recent blast by a nationally-syndi- 
cated Columnist, who sharply criticized the Federal Communications Commission for 
planning to renew licenses for GE radio and television stations in the wake of anti-trust 
indictments against the company. 

Bidders for the Saturn S-l fabrication contract were charged S500 each by NASA 
for the voluminous specifications. This is the first time the agency has charged for any- 
thing other than construction specifications. The specifications limit bidders’ proposals 
to 300 pages, and page size and type size are specified. The fees go to the miscellaneous 
fund of the U. S. Treasury'. 

Chairman Clarence Cannon of the House appropriations committee, the most 
powerful budgeteer in Congress, chose the last night of the session to bombard the 
Navy's aircraft carriers. Me said Vice Adm. Hyman Rickover, bv developing the nuclear- 
powered submarine, "has rendered the greatest sendee to the nation of any man since 
Lincoln." Then he sighted in on the flattops: “After spending 15 years and billions of 
dollars preparing the one great weapon to be ready when needed, we now find that all 
the time and money and emphasis devoted to this huge Frankenstein is utterly wasted 
and the carriers are useless and will be driven up the nearest river as far as they' can go 
as soon as war is declared or fighting starts. It is the most colossal national debacle in 
all military history.” 

Edward C. Welsh, executive secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space 
Council, will go ahead and try to build a staff in spite of Congress’ last-minute rejection 
of his request for permission to go outside Civil Sendee regulations on hiring. He may 
renew the request next year. Congress voted the extra S225.000 he requested for Fiscal 
1962 but killed the hiring request on a point of order. 

A crash program to counter any Soviet efforts to jam existing navigation aids in 
the air corridors to West Berlin is being planned by Military Air Transport Service. 
Among the moves being considered are installation of doppler navigators and use of 
lightweight inertial navigation systems aboard MATS aircraft and commercial airliners 
operating under the Civilian Reserve Aircraft Fleet (CRAF) program. 

NASA Administrator James E. Webb has rejected an idea— strongly supported by 
U. S. Information Agency Director Edward R. Murrow— for using the first manned 
orbital Mercury' flight to produce the first simultaneous world-wide television broadcast. 
Transistorized videcon cameras, already tested in rocket flights, would broadcast to air- 
craft, which would relay the images around the globe, scoring a major propaganda beat 
on Soviet Russia. 

When NASA's recent attempt to put the Ranger I into an elliptical orbit carrying 
it deep into space fell far short of the goal, a question arose on whether to call it an 
Explorer (for earth satellite) or a Pioneer (for probe). A project engineer suggested a 
compromise: Explainer I. -Washington Staff 


AVIATION WEEK 


SPACE TECHNOLOGY, Octc 


2, 1961 


Centaur Acceleration Planned by NASA 


Delays in development already have caused a shift 
of mission; five key programs dependent on vehicle. 

By Evert Clark 

Washington— Attempt will be made this week to accelerate the lagging 
development of the Atlas-Centaur space vehicle— the only booster that will 
be available to the U.S. for major deep space missions for at least 18 months. 

Atlas-Centaur is a particularly critical vehicle in the nation's space pro- 
gram. Its use of liquid hydrogen fuel in the Centaur second stage is expected 
to give the U. S. the first booster capable of lifting payloads comparable to 
those that Soviet Russia already has put into orbit or sent into deq> space. 
It also was to be the major step between currently available boosters and the 
will not carry payloads until 1963. 


1.3-million lb. thrust Saturn, which 

Development troubles that have de- 
layed the Centaur over the past year 
have come at a time when almost every 
booster or proposed booster in the U. S. 
program is under some kind of review. 
Initiation of all new developments is 
being postponed until the joint mili- 
tary-civilian Golovin committee (AW 
Sept. 4, p. 35) concludes its current 
survey of the propulsion picture. 

Five key space programs arc tied to 
the Atlas-Centaur vehicle. A portion 
of one-an attempt to send two probes 
to the planet Venus— already has been 
affected by the development delays (sec 
box). The programs are the Advent 
military communications satellite, the 
Mariner A lunar landing and Venus 
probes, the Mariner B Mars probes, the 
military-civilian S-3 energetic particles 
satellite and the Survcvor lunar soft 
landing vehicles. 

A Centaur status review meeting is 
being held Oct. 2 at National Aero- 
nautics and Space Administration's Mar- 
shall Space Flight Center in Hunts- 
ville, Ala., with the primary contractors 
-General Dynamics for the Atlas 


booster and Centaur stage, and Pratt & 
Whitney for the 15,000-lb. thrust LR- 
1 1 5 engine, two of which power the 
Centaur stage. 

An attempt will be made to work out 
a new timetable that may produce the 
first pre-flight readiness test of the LR- 
1 1 5 engines this month and first flight 
test of a vehicle in January. There is 
even some possibility that a flight test 
could come this year. 

First flight originally was scheduled 
for last July. This later slipped to 
November and then to next February. 
Most of the development delay has 
been due to the engine, but there also 
have been problems with the Centaur. 

Most of the development problems 
now are considered solved or close to 
solution, even though a number of 
questions-storage of the liquid hydro- 
gen in space during long planetary 
flights — will not be answered until a 
number of the vehicles have been 
flown. 

Among the problems encountered in 
the Centaur work were failure to get 


simultaneous ignition of both barrels 
of the propulsion package; pumping of 
the hydrogen fuel: and heat transfer in 
the engine package and from the hydro- 
gen tanks. Some of the problems were 
those common to development of any 
new rocket engine and stage: some were 
peculiar to the first attempt to utilize 
liquid hydrogen: some were the result 
of attempts to simulate the vacuum of 
space in ground facilities: and some 
undoubtedly stemmed from the fact 
that this was Pratt & Whitney's first 
rocket engine project. 

Several months ago. Pratt & Whitney 
took steps to strengthen the manage- 
ment of the Centaur engine work bv 
moving Willard L. Gorton, assistant 
engineering manager, to the Florida 
Research and Development Center as 
general manager (AW July 3. p. 33). 
It recently has shifted a sizable number 
of employes front the main plant in 
E. Hartford, Conn., to the Florida fa- 
cility. where development, test and pro- 
duction have been centered. It also has 
begun to manufacture some LR-115 
components in E. Hartford. 

Acceleration of the program might 
lead to production of engines both in 
Florida and in E. Hartford. 

Whether the current review of the 
Centaur effort will result in less am- 
bitious payload goals than originally 
planned is not known. NASA has said 
in the past that Centaur would put 
8.500 lb. into a 300-mi. orbit: send 
2.300 lb. on escape missions: 1.300 lb. 
to Mars or Venus; and put 1.250 lb. 
into a 22,300-mi. synchronous orbit. 

A quick look at the booster picture 
explains why the Centaur program 
cannot easily be canceled. Atlas-Agcna 
B. which is being used in the Discoverer. 
Midas and Samos programs, can put 
5,000 lb. into a 300-mi. orbit or 750 
lb. into an escape trajectory 1 . These 
weights are far below those planned 
for Centaur, and no space booster with 
more payload capacity is due to be 
ready in less than IS months. 

Even if Centaur is accelerated and 
meets its payload goals, a problem 
remains with the Advent satellite. 
Centaur was supposed to put Advent 
into a 22.300-mi. orbit. But Advent's 
weight has continued to grow and is 
now reported to be more than 2,000 
lb— well in excess of the 1,250-lb. fig- 
ure mentioned for Centaur. Defense 
Department and NASA recently con- 
sidered trying to shave 1,000 lb. from 
the vehicle itself to offset the growth 
in Advent’s weight. 

Use of the Martin Titan II topped 
by a high-energy upper stage such as 
the proposed Chariot or Draco (see p. 
23) or the Centaur stage, has been 
proposed to handle the Advent mission. 


Mariner Payloads Shifted From Centaur 

Washington— Weight of two Mariner A payloads will be reduced to 450 lb. so 
they can be launched by an Atlas Agcna B vehicle on a Venus probe mission when 
the earth and Venus arc in their most favorable relative positions next August and 
September. If the probes arc not launched on schedule, U. S. must wait until March. 
1964. for the next opportunity. 

The move is being taken because of the difficulties experienced in development 
of the Atlas-Centaur, originallv scheduled to launch the Mariner A. There arc five 
Mariner A vehicles in the program, three of which will weigh the full 1.100 lb. 

Transfer of the two Mariner As from the Atlas-Centaur program leaves the 
program with 23 flights and the following schedule: 

• Calendar 1962: five vehicle development flights, the first containing an Advent 

fourth and fifth carrying joint Advanced Research Projects Agency-National Aero- 
nautics and Space Administration energetic particles satellites. 

• Calendar 1963: six launches, one with an ARPA-NASA energetic particles satellite, 
two with Advent satellites, and three with Survcvor soft lunar landing probes. 

• Calendar 1964: seven NASA ss s ,1 s delivery of five vehicles to USAF for 
Advent launches. NASA missions are a Mariner A to the moon, two Mariner A 
vehicles to Venus, two lunar Surveyors and two Mariner B vehicles to Mars. 


26 AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


Michoud Manager Named 

Washington— George N. Constan has 


the National Aeronautics and Space Ad- 
ministration’s Satnm fabrication facility 
in Michoud, La., and will be in charge 
of reactivating the plant. 

Constan's appointment was made at 
a conference for prospective bidders for 
the Saturn project held last week in New 
Orleans (AW Sept. IS, p. 26). Twenty- 
five of the 36 prospective prime con- 
tractors invited, attended, along with 
33 potential subcontractors. Bids for 
Satnm S-l stage arc due Oct. 16. NASA 
hopes to hold prospective bidders con- 
ference on S-1B stage before that time. 


But Titan II has not yet had its first 
flight test and Air Force has not vet 
asked for bids on a high-energy upper 
stage, even though it has SI 5 million in 
Fiscal 1962 funds to begin work. 

Nothing further is expected to be 
done in interim boosters or on several 
versions of the Saturn and Nova super- 
boosters until the Golovin committee 
reports— probably in the next two weeks. 

Because of the Centaur delays, the 
Advent weight problem and the ques- 
tion of what boosters shall be used for 
the orbital version of the Dyna-Soar 
boost glider and its proposed follow-on 
weapon system, many industry observ- 
ers felt that decisions were needed now 
rather than another committee study, 
particularly since a committee headed 
by Dr. Oswald F. Schuette of Defense 
Department’s research and engineering 
office had just gone over much of the 
same ground. Others felt that there 
were so many proposals on the table 
for interim and large military and civil- 
ian space boosters that some compre- 
hensive joint survey was necessary. 

Among the proposals: 

• Titan II plus Centaur or a fluorine- 
hydrogen stage or the Rocketdvne 
Nomad high-energy upper stage, and 
with or without large solid rockets 
clustered around the first stage. 

• Atlas topped by an S-IVII stage, 
which would use a 60,000-lb. Rocket- 
dvne Atlas sustaincr engine, converted 
to burn liquid hydrogen. 

• Thor-Diana, using the Douglas Thor 
booster plus a Diana stage powered by 
one LR-1 1 5 engine. Two solid rockets 
from the Little Joe booster would as- 
sist the Thor at takeoff. 

• Atlas topped by a four-barrelled 
version of Centaur. 

• S-IVB stage, based on the S-IV stage 
of Saturn but using one 200,000-lb. 
thrust Rocketdvne J-2 engine instead of 
six LR-1 15s. 

• Titan I with two 110-in. solid pro- 
pellant rockets strapped to the sides. 

• Cluster of 100-in. solid motors 
wrapped around a J-2 engine. 


Congress Treated Space, Defense 
Well But Lagged on Civil Aviation 


Washington— Congress this year gave 
an unprecedented amount of attention 
and money to peacetime scientific and 
military programs but postponed until 
next session the decisions on major civil 
aviation questions. 

With little debate, the Congress 
which adjourned last week gave Presi- 
dent Kennedy practically everything lie 
requested for space and defense, thereby 
committing the nation to spending 
some S20 billion on the moon pro- 
gram alone between now and the time 
a U. S. lunar landing is made. 

Ease with which the President’s space 
and military proposals sailed through 
Congress was attributable largely to the 
"gun-at-the-head” atmosphere which 
prevailed on Capitol Hill through much 
of the first session. The Russians did 
the most to create this atmosphere, but 
President Kennedy built on it in pre- 
senting his space and military programs 
to Congress. 

Gagarin Was Spur 

The vision of Maj. Yuri Gagarin or- 
biting the earth, for example, was fresh 
in the minds of the lawmakers when 
President Kennedy, May 25, called for 
more money to accelerate our own 
space program. The President rejected 
the conservative viewpoint that the 
U. S. was not in a space race. He said: 
“Now is the time to take longer strides 
—time for a great American enterprise 
-time for this nation to take a clearly 
leading role in space achievements 
which, in many ways, may hold the 
key to our future on earth. , . .” (AW 
May 29. p. 25). 

Congress responded by appropriating 
SI. 671. 7 50, 000 for the National Aero- 
nautics and Space Administration for 
Fiscal 1962— S562 million more than 
President Eisenhower requested and 
SI 12 million less than the $1,784,300.- 
000 President Kennedy sought. 

For defense. Congress appropriated 
546.662,556,000, with $207.6 million 
going for the civil defense program 
President Kennedy placed under the 
Defense Department. This amount is 
nearly S5 billion more than the $41.84 
billion President Eisenhower requested 
for the military functions of the Defense 
Department for Fiscal 1962. and a new 
peacetime high (AW Jan. 23. 1961), 

Now the senators and representatives 
are home trying to determine if the 
crisis atmosphere which prevailed on 
Capitol Hill also is felt by their con- 
stituents. Already, there are signs that 
several lawmakers in both parties are 
having second thoughts about spending 
billions to reach the moon. 


One such indication came at the pre- 
adjournment press conference of Sen- 
ate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirk- 
sen (R.-Ill.) and House Minority 
Leader Charles A. Halleck (R.-Ind.). 
Sen. Dirksen said the moon effort, com- 
pared with other scientific endeavors, 
had "doubtful value” while Rep. Hal- 
leck said he had “serious misgivings” 
about spending so much money on the 
moon program. Chairman Clarence 
Cannon (D.-Mo.) of the House appro- 
priations committee also shares this 


Opposition Stiffened 

Such reservations— especially if they 
arc reinforced by attitudes back home- 
mean tougher sledding for space re- 
quests next year, especially in the House 
which in the closing days of Congress 
stiffened its opposition to spending pro- 

Defcnse money requests, however, 
should remain fairly immune from this 
type of opposition, especially since 
1962 is an election year and few would 
dare vote against U. S. security. A 
significant example came this year in 
the Senate when Sen. William Prox- 
mirc (D.-Wis.) offered an amendment 
to strike from the defense appropria- 
tion bill the S525 million for bombers 
Secretary of Defense Robert S. Mc- 
Namara said he did not need or want. 
Onlv three senators joined Sen. Prox- 
mire in voting for the amendment 
(AW, Aug. 14. p. 30). 

Congress this year did demand that 
the Defense Department obtain more 
flexibility in its budgeting so programs 
could be tailored to meet the changing 
conditions of the cold war. Also, Con- 
gress demanded a war on waste by the 
military. McNamara promised "an at- 
tack on all fronts," unveiled a new 
budgeting program designed to disclose 
the total cost of a weapon at the outset 
of its development and to make 
weapons, rather than services, compete 
against each other for money (AW, 
July 31. p. 24). The first test of this 
new system will come next year when 
Congress reviews the defense budget. 
Ready Answer 

McNamara also had an answer to 
congressional criticism of the Defense 
Department’s use of nonprofit re- 
search firms: Budget Bureau will studv 
the whole question and report its find- 
ing to President Kennedy by Dec. 1. 
The House Science and Astronautics 
Committee staff studied nonprofit 
firms this year, but what will come of 
the inquiry depends on the new chair- 


AVIATION 


SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


man. Rep. George P. Miller (D.- 
Calif.), who succeeds the late Rep. 
Overton Brooks (D.-La.) (sec p. 30). 

As for civil aviation legislation, it 
suffered in Congress both from failing 
to have the same type of urgency as 
space and defense bills and from 
House resistance to backdoor spending. 

President Kennedy submitted to 
Congress a five-year, S375-million pro- 
gram of federal aid to airports. His 
bill would authorize the Federal Avia- 
tion Agency to enter into long-term 
contracts with cities planning airports. 
This would assure cities that federal 
money would be forthcoming whether 
Congress appropriated it or not. The 
House rebelled at this, putting the 
program on a year-by-year basis. 

Senate backers of the contract au- 


thority hoped to salvage at least three 
years advance funding. Again the 
House resisted, and last week, just be- 
fore adjournment, it appropriated SI 50 
million for two years. The Senate 
backers either had to accept this or 
nothing, so they regretfully went along 
with the measure. 

Supplementals Bill Stalled 

Civil Aeronautics Board got little 
from this Congress other than the right 
to carry out the agency’s reorganiza- 
tion plan. Differing bills to spell out 
the rights of supplemental air carriers 
were passed by the Senate and House, 
but the conference to resolve differ- 
ences was postponed until next vear 
(AW, Sept. 18, p. 45). 


sions postponed by Congress this year, 
promises to be a crucial one for civilian 
aviation. For one thing, President Ken- 
nedy is expected to recommend several 
legislative actions to improve the na- 
tion's over-all transportation system. 
Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges 
has said he will file his recommenda- 
tions with the President no later than 
Nov. 1. 

Another important development will 
be the staff study and Senate aviation 
subcommittee hearings on interna- 
tional air traffic agreements. The sub- 
committee laid the groundwork for 
these hearings just before Congress 
adjourned. 

Also put off until next year are the 
proposals to tax jet fuel and to raise air 


USAF Aims at Military Space Supremacy 


Bv George Alexander 

Philadelphia— Air Force, increasingly 
concerned with the military threat 
posed by a rapidly-developing Soviet 
space capability, made clear its goal of 
U. S. military superiority in space at a 
symposium held during the recent Air 
Force Assn, meeting here. 

Concern of industry and government 
with the military significance of space 
was evident, as Air Force pressed for a 
unified national space effort and re- 
moval of the space exploration restric- 
tions imposed on the military services 
at the time of the National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration’s creation. 

Trevor Gardner, former USAF assist- 
ant secretary for research and now presi- 
dent of Hycon Manufacturing Co., 
was chairman of a panel which included 
Gen. Bernard A. Schrievcr, commander 
of Air Force Systems Command 
(AFSC), Rep. Emilio Daddario (D.- 
Conn.), Dr. Edward C. Welsh, execu- 
tive secretary of the National Aero- 
nautics and Space Council and Dr. 
Walter R. Dornbcrger. vice president 
of Bell Aerosystems Co. 

All five panel members stressed the 
military implications of the Vostoks and 
Sputniks and warned that Soviet con- 
trol of space, if accomplished, threat- 
ened the nation’s survival and not just 
the freedom of the U.S. to explore 

Dr. Welsh said that "the Commu- 
nists have expressed their determina- 
tion to dominate the world. . . . and 
you can be sure that they are not spend- 
ing such effort and resources unless they 
believe firmly that it can be lustificd in 
terms of world domination.” Gardner 
described the Soviet space threat as 
“imminent and dangerous” and called 
upon the Kennedy Administration to 
match the commitment for a lunar 


landing program with a similar pledge 
for a strong and effective U. S. military 
posture in space. 

Welsh cited the 1958 Space Act, 
which created NASA and established 
as U. S. policy that "activities m space 
should be devoted to peaceful purposes 
for the benefit of all mankind.” He 
said that while this policy was sound, 
it is sometimes misinterpreted to mean 
that space has no military applications. 
This is not true, he said. 

“In my view,” the Space Council 
secretary said, “we do not have a divi- 
sion between peaceful and non-pcaccful 
objectives for space. Rather, we have 
space missions to help keep the peace 
and space missions to help increase otir 
ability to live well in peace.” 

Welsh said that the 1958 Space Act 
did recognize the military uses of space 
by exempting from NASA control those 
space activities which are related to na- 
tional defense, these being the proper 
concern of the Defense Department. 
In addition, Welsh pointed out, the 
act required an exchange of informa- 
tion on space activities between De- 
fense and NASA, adding: "If only one 
agency were expected to be fully respon- 
sible for space programs, there would 
be no occasion for that provision.” 

Defense Department responsibility 
in space was not clearly spelled out in 
the original draft of the act written by 
the Eisenhower Administration. Welsh 
said, but Congress “saw the error and 
changed the language." 

Welsh, apparently referring to Air 
Force and NASA programs, said "it is 
more important to cure duplications of 
omission than duplications of perform- 
ance. In the latter, the job gets done 
even though it may be done wastcfully, 
while in the former, the job doesn’t get 
done at all.” 

Welsh said that the advantages of 


manned space vehicles— the ability of an 
astronaut to make observations and de- 
cisions— are obvious and are “equally ap- 
plicable. whether the spacecraft is on a 
mission to maintain the peace or on a 
mission limited to increasing our scien- 
tific knowledge." 

Welsh answered those critics of space 
who contend that the money spent on 
these programs could be better applied 
to cancer research by saying: "If we 
don't start spending more on defense 
[in space], we won’t be around long 
enough to get cancer." 

The military services, barred from 
conducting open-end research in space 
by the Space Act and the Eisenhower 
Administration’s dictum that space is 
for peaceful purposes, have been author- 
ized to explore space only in support of 
such sharply-defined missions as recon- 
naissance. navigation, communications 
and satellite interception. 

Gen. Schricver, in stating USAF’s 
case for a freer hand in conducting space 
research, said: "The key to rapid utili- 
zation of space by man for military and 
civilian purposes is flexibility. We must 
not design our space vehicles and pro- 
grams just to achieve those objectives 
which we can define now. We must 
design the vehicles with enough capacity 
to rapidly adapt to, or incorporate, the 
vast new knowledge which will flow 
from our space program. A manned 
space observatory should be designed so 
that the composition of the crew of ob- 
servers can be modified or completely 
changed to accomplish new or addi- 
tional missions.” 

The AFSC commander said that the 
best approach to a military space pro- 
gram is a mixture of unmanned and 
manned space vehicles and that a 
greater emphasis on the latter is re- 
quired. Schricver listed the following 
as essential for the development of a 


and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


AVIATION WEEK 


military capability in the realm of space: 

• Large boosters able to place heavy 
payloads in space. 

• Maneuverability of spacecraft, with 
appropriate navigation. 

• Re-entry and landing techniques to 
allow a vehicle to return to earth at any 

• Rendezvous, to effect refueling, cargo 
transfer and anything else required to 
support man in space. 

• identification and interception of hos- 
tile satellites. 

Schricver said that the U. S. has "his- 
torically tended to overestimate what 
we could do on a short-term basis and 
to grossly underestimate what we could 
do on a long-term basis.” Consequently 
slow to grasp the military importance 
of new inventions, the U. S. in the past 
had the oceans to buy time for war 
preparation. "But today.” he said, 
“technological surprise could be fatal. 
We should recognize that there is no 
inherent difference between basic mili- 
tary and non-military space technology. 
Tire same techniques that can send a 
man into space as a scientific observer 
may also send him in a military role.” 

Gen. Schricver, when asked about the 
future role of the Air Force in space, 
replied: “I’ll have a better answer to 
that [question] in 90 to 120 days from 
now.” Observers understood him to 
mean that lie is waiting for the various 
NASA-Defense Department committees 
to file their reports, to see whether 
USAF has made its point of the neces- 
sity for a unified space effort. 

An indication or some Congressional 
support for USAF’s effort was Rep. 
Daddario’s remark: “The development 
of outer space is a national goal. The 
civilian and military must work side by 
side in this space effort . . let us remem- 
ber that when our big boosters roar 
upward at Cape Canaveral, the words 
lettered on them will not read ‘NASA’ 
or 'Department of Defense’ but simply 
’United States.’ ” 

Questioned about the possibility that 
NASA's new Manned Space Flight 
Laboratory at Houston, Tex. (AW Sept. 
25, p. 350), might duplicate existent 
facilities, Rep. Daddario said that he 
would support the laboratory only if 
it complemented the nation’s present 
bioastronautics capability. 

Dr. Dornberger said that the Soviets 
undoubtedly recognize space as “an 
opportunity for obtaining a new and 
unique military superiority" and reiter- 
ated his prediction (AW Sept. 18, p. 
57) that, if they do achieve control of 
this new medium, one of their first 
actions probably will be to eliminate 
"our space systems, such as reconnais- 
sance. weather, communication, naviga- 
tion, detection and interception satel- 
lites." At present, Dr. Dornberger said, 
there would be little the U. S. could 
do about it. 

AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY 


Beech Will Market Pressurized 
Twin With Turboprop Powerplants 


Tulsa, Okla.— Firm commitment to 
develop and produce a twin-turboprop 
six-to-eight-placc business plane, with 
deliveries of certificated airplanes an- 
ticipated during 1964, was made here 
by Beech Aircraft Corp. Vice President- 
Domestic Sales Lcddy Greever during 
National Business Aircraft Assn.'s 14th 
annual forum. 

The airplane that Beech will build, 
according to Greever, will have a cruise 
speed of 300 mph. and nonstop range 
of over 1,500 mi. with allowances for 
warmup, taxi, takeoff, climb to altitude 
and “adequate fuel reserve." 

The all-metal, low-wing, tricycle- 
geared airplane will have a pressurized 

Greever declined to go beyond these 
broad parameters in his disclosure of 
the new project, stating that complete 
specifications and a full-scale mockup 
will be unveiled within the next 90 
days. 

Price Estimated 

He also stated that a basic airplane, 
with interior and fitted for Instrument 
Might Rules operation, but minus op- 
tional equipment and electronics, 
would cost less than S400.000. 

Although Beech has been known to 
have been conducting studies in the 
turbine field for some six years and to 
have spent approximately S8 million 
thus far on thousands of experimental 
and engineering man-hours on varied 
projects, indications are that manage- 
ment's decision to go ahead on the new 
airplane was made only a few days be- 
fore the meeting started and caught 
many people within the company, as 
well as industry observers, by complete 
surprise. 

It is believed that the reason Beech 
was unable to provide more infonnation 
than it did here last week was that 
beyond preliminary engineering covering 
a wide variety of possible configurations 
some major decisions, including final 
choice of powerplants, have yet to be 
made. Right after the announcement 
here, the company was besieged with 
calls from its distributor-dealer organi- 
zation asking for information and rep- 
resentatives here were trying to round 
up copies of Grecver's statement to de- 
termine what could be said. 

Foreign Engines Likely 

Although Beech would not even dis- 
cuss powerplant choices, indications are 
that the Turbomeca Bastan and Astazou 
arc leading contenders for the initial 
airplane, although the Canadian Pratt 
& Whitney PT6 turboprop could not 
be discounted. There also is reason to 

, October 2, 1961 


believe that the company may make 
several versions available with a choice 
of powerplants so that the customer 
could buy one or the other, depending 
upon how much money lie was willing 

Manufacturers’ Comment 

Engine manufacturers maintain that 
they arc completely in the dark as to 
Beech plans and that beyond having 
supplied the normal engineering and 
cost data on their engines, they have no 
clues as to what the airframe manufac- 
turer is contemplating in the way of 

This would tend to bear out feelings 
that Beech itself has not yet made any 
finn decision in this area. 

The company has conducted exten- 
sive wind tunnel programs to study flap 
and fillet development, nacelle size and 
placement, as well as developing experi- 
mental new types of wing construction 
and wing sections. Some of these have 
been built and static tested, as well as 
differing fuselage sections, to determine 
proper size and configuration. 

Tests have also been made on a va- 
riety of heating, air conditioning and 
pressurization system combinations to 
reduce complexity and weight penalties 
as well as develop optimum passenger 
comfort features. 

Market studies thus far have included 
discussions with more than 50% of all 
U. S. corporate fleet operators in the 
Beech Twin-Bonanza, Queen Air and 
Model IS class or larger. These indi- 
cated that most corporate flight oper- 
ations were conducted over stage lengths 
of less than 500 mi. 

Details Guarded 

Although the company is tightly 
guarding further details regarding the 
new twin-turboprop, some of the par- 
ameters disclosed would indicate an 
airplane in the Queen Air class and it 
is known that Beech has conducted 
detailed studies on turboprop versions 
of this airplane. In fact, the price 
bracket disclosed by Greever would fall 
well into just this type of project, since 
sources close to the company’s investi- 
gations have estimated that pressurizing 
and "turbinizing" the Queen Air would 
more than double the price of the stand- 
ard piston-powered model of the air- 
plane. 

If such is the case, then this basic 
airframe would undergo major modifica- 
tion. including an entirely new, low- 
drag wing, probably incorporating some 
laminar flow and a new tail of lower- 
drag characteristics, as well as general 
clean-up of the fuselage. 

29 



Miller Opposes Stress on Race to Moon 


done by staff people steeped in the sub- 
ject at hand. Consequently, the hear- 
ings often took a rambling, shallow 

Even so, Rep. Brooks focused at- 
tention on a number of space subjects 
which would not otherwise have been 
discussed. His hearings, despite short- 
comings. did help educate Congress and 
the public on space matters and helped 
create what Rep. Brooks called “a 
sense of urgency." 

Reorganization Planned 

But this approach is due for a 
change. "The necessity for long posture 
hearings is past,” Rep. Miller told 
Aviation Week. He plans to reor- 
ganize the committee so that the sub- 
committees will ride herd on specific 
agencies with space responsibilities such 
as the Defense Department, National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration, 
National Bureau of Standards. National 
Science Foundation and the Weather 
Bureau (AW Sept. 25. p. 550). 

Subtle changes in prospect will in- 
clude more committee flexibility in- 
ternally and a more critical attitude 
externally. These two changes are 
related. 

Chairman Miller does not intend to 
make the committee a one-man show. 
This attitude in itself will give the 
committee a new flexibility. Staff ex- 
perts will have more authority to block 
out the territory for committee hear- 
ings: more opportunity to ask questions 
once the hearings are under way, and 
more chance after the hearings to write 
reports provocative enough to inspire 
debate on the policy questions arising 
with increasing frequency as the U.S. 
plunges deeper into space. 

Challenge to Firms 

One result will be a stiffer challenge 
to aerospace companies. They will find 
subcommittees and their staffs visiting 
their plants, will have to do more home- 
work before hearings, and will find 
themselves criticized more penctrat- 
ingly in staff reports. At the same time, 
the committee's increased technical 
competence promises a better oppor- 
tunity for the aerospace industry to gain 
the understanding of lawmakers, 

Rep. Barratt O'Hara (D.-Ill.), one of 
Rep. Miller's closest associates in Con- 
gress. told Aviation Week: “George 
Miller, even though he kids a lot, is one 
of the ablest and most respected mem- 
bers of the House." As for Rep. Mil- 
ler’s age-70— Rep. O'Hara said: "When 
they started hitting him on that back in 
the [Rep. Miller’s congressional] dis- 
trict, he climbed into a jet plane and 
flew faster than sound. And, he's also 


By George C. Wilson 

Washington— Rep. George Paul Mil- 
ler (D.-Calif.), newly elected chairman 
of the House Science and Astronautics 
Committee, firmly believes the U. S. 
space effort should be a step-bv-step 
program rather than a headlong race to 
the moon. 

“The path to the moon is not a race- 
track,” Rep. Miller told Aviation 
Week. “We are following a definite 
plan with fixed, scientific objectives and 
we're right on schedule. This doesn't 
mean you have to pull your punches 
on the moon. Sure, it would be nice 
to beat Russia there. But what we’re 
really after is knowledge and infonna- 
tion which will add up to a steady ad- 
vance into space. 

“I don't like to think we're behind 
in space,” he said. "I think we’re ac- 
cumulating more scientific data and dis- 
seminating more of it than the Russians 

all wrong.” 

This conviction that the U. S. 
should proceed to the moon at its own 


pace is shared by the conservative bloc 
in the scientific community’ and by 
many other members of Congress. 

The effect of Rep. Miller's views on 
the House space committee will be 
felt between now and next January 
when Congress reconvenes. Changes in 
prospect— some obvious, others subtle- 
wili, among other tilings, reshape the 
relationship between Congress and the 
aerospace industry. 

Obvious changes include formation 
of hard-hitting subcommittees staffed 
with experts in various space fields; a 
switch in committee emphasis from 
broad, general topics like this year's 
hearings on defense research to narrower 
topics like management of the life sci- 
ences program; and frequent field trips 
by the committee and its staff to gov- 
ernment and industry space installa- 

Under the chairmanship of the late 
Rep. Overton Brooks (D.-La.), the em- 
phasis was on full committee hearings, 
usually attended by only a fraction of 
the 25 members. Present membership 
is 27. The questioning was seldom 


REP. GEORGE P. MILLER (D.-Calif.), new chairman of the House Science and Astro- 
nautics Committee, enters the White House for a recent visit with the President. Rep. 
Miller succeeds the late Rep. Overton Brooks (D.-La.). 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 



one of the most traveled members of 
the House.” 

Another Miller colleague, also a 
member of the House space committee, 
said the new chairman's own role will 
make little difference if he goes through 
with his promise to give subcommittees 
adequate authority. 

"You've got lots of young men on 
that committee eager to get into space 
questions.” he said. “They're readv to 
go. So what difference docs it make how 
much time Miller himself gives to hear- 
ings as long as he gives subcommittees 
the authority they need to operate 
effectively?” 

The youthfulness of the House com- 
mittee is in significant contrast to the 
Senate Aeronautical and Space Sciences 
Committee. Most of the House space 
committee members are still trying to 
carve out their political niches. Nearly 
all the Senate space committee members 
already have made national reputations 
in other fields and seldom concentrate 

Rep. Miller said he is enthusiastic 
about his new chairmanship. “The mis- 
sion of the committee,” he said, “will 
be to stimulate interest and thought and 
to plead the cause of space in the legis- 
lative halls.” 

The present space program “is a 
good one and in very capable hands,” 
he said. The military’s role in space. 
Rep. Miller said, is big enough and 
should not be enlarged. 

As to Russia's lead in the big booster 
field. Rep. Miller attributed it to the 
U. S. decision to concentrate on minia- 
turizing space payloads. “If a mistake 
was made," Rep. Miller said, “it was 
through inculpable ignorance." 

Rep. Miller was bom in San Francisco 
Jan. 15. 1891. He holds a civil engi- 
neering degree from St. Maiy’s Col- 
lege in California. The new commit- 
tee chairman served as a lieutenant in 


the field artillery during World War I. 

Rep. Miller began his political career 
in 1956 when he was elected to the 
California State Assembly. In Novem- 
ber of 1 944, he was elected to the 
House of Representatives. He has been 
re-elected ever since, beating his Re- 
publican opponent in the last election 
by 1 52.476 to 95.405. His Eighth Con- 
gressional District encompasses the 
eastern half of the city of Oakland and 
Southern Alameda County. 

Rep. Miller considers himself a lib- 
eral Democrat and was an early sup- 
porter of President Kennedy. He is a 
member of the House Merchant Marine 
and Fisheries Committee and was chair- 
man of its Oceanography Subcommittee 
until lie resigned Sept. 21 to become 
chairman of the space committee. 

Navy Evaluating Bids 
For Unde rsea Robot 

Proposals for the fabrication and test- 
ing of an underwater search and recov- 
ery vehicle applicable to a wide range of 
operations are being evaluated by the 
Naval Ordnance Laboratory. Silver 
Spring. Md. Bids were submitted last 
month in an industry competition. De- 
livery of the vehicle is expected by the 
middle of next year, tests will be con- 
ducted at NOL’s Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., 

Indications arc that the undersea 
vehicle will weigh 1.000-1.500 lb., ex- 
clusive of cable and auxiliary equip- 
ment, and measure approximately 5 by 
5 by 10 ft. It will be required to oper- 
ate and remain leakproof for a period 
of 8 hr. at a depth of 2,000 ft., in a 
current of 0.1 kt. or less. Requirement 
will be to carry, launch, and recover the 
vehicle in open sea by a converted land- 
ing-craft-tvpe vessel. 

Vehicle frame will be designed to 


rest on or more along the ocean bot- 
tom. It will incorporate a high resolu- 
tion television camera housing and 
approximately 5,500 ft. of cable, which 
will he the electrical connection be- 
tween the vehicle’s propulsion system, 
control instrumentation, TV. and tool 
manipulation equipment, and the con- 
trols on the surface ship. 

Approximately 100 lb. of manipula- 
tors and tools will be carried. Tools 
will be relatively small in cross section, 
and will be clamped rigidly to the vehi- 
cle, with working surfaces extending 
approximately 2 ft. forward of the vehi- 
cle within the TV camera’s view. 

Vehicle will have a slight positive 
buoyancy, to allow it to rise to the 
surface in the event of loss. It will 
operate in open ocean waters in depths 
up to 2,000 ft., and its propulsion will 
permit the surface operator to move the 
vehicle up and down, forward and back, 
and turn in approximately its own diam- 
eter. In operations off the bottom, 
the vehicle will be able to hover in nr 
move against currents up to 5 kt. at 
1,000 ft. depth or move at a 4 kt. 
horizontal speed in still water at 1,000 
ft. At mid-depths or on the bottom, 
propulsion controls would permit 
maneuverability to ±5 in. 


Planet Study Grant 


St. 

lford University 

School of Median 


received a S5S0.- 

640 research gran 

1 

om the National 

Aeronautics and Si 

ace 

Administration to 



Venus and Mars 

probes to determin 

tl 


on those planets. 



I he project, to 

he 

directed bv Dr. 

Joshua Lcderbcrg. 

s a 

,»ril it rli'ti’nii . 

ing the nucleic stn 

ch 

es of microscopic 

organisms. The g 

anl 


search through Ma 

ch. 

1964. 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, Oc 




NASA to Use Industry-Trained Managers 


By Edward H. Kolcum 

Washington — National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration, faced with 
a vastly increased manned space flight 
program and a budget that is expected 
to reach §5-4 billion annually in a few 
years, will reorganize Nov. 1, putting 
increasing reliance on young industry- 
trained managers and simplified re- 
porting lines. 

One man— Dr. Robert C. Seamans, 
Jr., associate administrator— emerges as 
the top technical executive in the space 
program. Ten field stations which for- 
merly reported to three headquarters 
offices will report directly to him, and 
all technical programs will be incor- 
porated into four technical offices, also 
reporting to Seamans. 

The Launch Vehicles Office and 
Life Sciences Office are being abolished, 
and their programs will be integrated 
into the specific flight or research pro- 
grams they support. 

New Offices 

New technical offices and their di- 
rectors are: Advanced Research and 
Technology, Ira H. Abbott, now direc- 
tor of the agency's Advanced Research 
Programs; Space Sciences. Dr. Homer 
E. Newell, Jr., deputy director of Space 
Flight Programs; Manned Space Flight, 
Brainerd Holmes, general manager of 
Radio Corp. of America's Major De- 
fense Systems Division; and Applica- 
tions, expected to be headed by John 
J. Burke, executive vice president of the 
Siegler Corp., a holding company for 
electronics manufacturing firms. 

Program directors are responsible 
for defining technical objectives, de- 
fending project and program funds, 
establishing schedules and evaluating 
progress. 

Thomas F. Dixon, appointed direc- 
tor of the Launch Vehicles Office in 
August, becomes Dr. Seamans’ deputy. 

A NASA official said the new organ- 
ization effectively eliminates the com- 
partmentalization into which the 
agency' was drifting, with centers and 
project chiefs reporting to individual 
program offices. Some in the agency 
fear that Dr. Seamans and Dixon will 
be spread thin with direct management 
responsibility for all programs and cen- 
ters, and that the new organization 
will evolve into decisions from junior 
staff members in Seamans’ office. How- 
ever, others, including NASA Admin- 
istrator James E. Webb, feel the new 
organization will give greater emphasis 
to the agency’s major programs, which 
are included in the four program offices. 

Elimination of launch vehicles and 
life sciences as major program offices, 


NASA said, docs not indicate that these 
programs arc being downgraded. Proj- 
ects in the current programs will be 
split according to mission. Dixon will 
be the top management official for all 
NASA launch vehicles except Saturn 
and Nora, which have been keyed to 
the manned space flight program. It is 
expected that vehicle branches will be 
established in the four program offices 
according to mission requirements. 

A NASA spokesman said elimination 
of the controversial Office of Life 
Sciences is not a surrender to the Air 
Force or congressional critics of the 
agency’s plans to build a capability in 
bioastronautics. Although the program 
is being split, the total number of head- 
quarters bioastronautics professionals 
will be increased from 11 to 27 during 
Fiscal 1962. 

Criticism of the office began with its 
establishment in 1959 and has centered 
around the fear that it duplicates an 
existing Department of Defense func- 

Appointmcnt of Dixon and Holmes, 
and the possible appointment of Burke 
represent a significant departure from 
the early structure of NASA, in which 
top government scientific officials were 
made top NASA program managers. 
Dixon. 46. was chief engineer of 
Rockctdvnc Division of North Ameri- 
can Aviation, Inc. The shift to young 
industrial talent also is apparent in 
Holmes, 40, and Burke, 3S. 
Unanswered Questions 

The new NASA organization estab- 
lishes clcar-cut assignments for all the 
agency programs into one of the four 
new offices, but it leaves unanswered 
many personnel questions. A number 
of headquarters people have been in- 
volved both in specific programs and 
advanced technical development, and 
these two areas arc being separated. 
The agency expects to complete the 
organization and personnel assignments 
this month. 

In addition to assignment of new 
program directors, other major personnel 
changes already made involve Abe 
Silvcrstein, who was director of Space 
Flight Programs, transferred to Lewis 
Research Center as director, and Robert 
R. Gilruth, whose appointment as di- 
rector of the newly authorized Houston 
Manned Spacecraft Center was made 
formal (AW Sept. 25, p. 350). Gilruth 
is presently director of the Space Task 
Group at Langley Field. 

Eugene [. Manganicllo, who has been 
acting director of Lewis since the re- 
tirement of the late Edward R. Sharp 
last year, will resume his permanent job 
as assistant director. 


In the new organization, Abbott’s 
office sheds its former role of institu- 
tional support for Langley, Lewis, Ames 
and Flight Research Centers and be- 
comes a program office for all advanced 
technical developments, and all aero- 
nautical programs. This involves a 
major shift from the current Launch 
Vehicles Office in programs not related 
to specific flight missions, and will in- 
clude nuclear and electric propulsion, 
supporting research in solid fuel and 
liquid fuel propulsion, space power 
technology and power supplies. 

Also shifting to Abbott’s office will 
be a part of the life sciences work, par- 
ticularly the advanced life support sys- 
tems research. 

Enough Flexibility 

NASA did not follow the suggestions 
of the Weisner committee or Project 
Horizon in establishing a separate aero- 
nautical office, because of a philosophy 
of non-compartmentalizing (AW Sept. 
18, p. 25). The agency reels the new 
organization is flexible enough to con- 
duct additional aeronautical research 
if an increase is required in military 

Applications Office will include all 
weather and communications satellite 
program activity, which has been split 
from the current Space Flight Office. 
Also split from Space Flight arc Dr. 
Newell’s Space Sciences, and Holmes’ 
Manned Space Flight. 

Dr. Newell will be executive direc- 
tor for all unmanned flight programs 
with the exception of communications 
and weather satellites. This includes all 
lunar and planetary programs, and sci- 
entific satellites and probes. In this 
category are Ranger. Surveyor. Pros- 
pector. Mariner and Vovagcr lunar- 
Vcnus-Mars missions, and the continu- 
ing satellite programs to sample 
magnetic and radiation characteristics. 
Geophysical, astronomical and solar 
observatories are in this office. 

Space biology programs to determine 
existence of extra-terrestrial life will be 
shifted to the Space Sciences Office. 

Office of Manned Space Flight will 
direct the over-all systems evaluation 
and engineering for spacecraft, launch 
vehicles, ground support equipment, 
and tracking and communications net- 
works. Aerospace medicine will be in- 
tegrated into this office, and the direc- 
tor of life sciences programs. USAF 
Brig. Gen. Charles H. Roadman, will 
become one of the key deputies in the 
program. 

Staff offices and their directors will 
be; Legislative Affairs, Paul G. Dcm- 
bling; Plans and Programs Evaluation, 
Abraham Hyatt; Public Information, 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


O. B. Lloyd. Jr.; Technical Informa- 
tion and Education, which was trans- 
ferred from a program to an executive 
office. Shelby Thompson; General 
Counsel, John A. Johnson: Interna- 
tional Programs. Arnold Frutkin: and 
Executive Assistant Franklvn Phillips. 

Dr. Seamans staff offices arc Pro- 
grams, directed by D. D. Wyatt, and 
Administration, directed by Albert F. 
Siepcrt; field centers which formerly 
reported to program directors now re- 
port directly to Dr. Seamans and Dixon. 

Marshall Space Flight Center, 

headed bv Wernher von Braun, and the 
NASA Atlantic Missile Range launch 
operations directorate, headed by Kurt 
II. Debus, formerly were part of the 
Launch Vehicles Office. 

Formerly under the Space Flight 
Office were Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 
directed by Dr. William II. Pickering; 
Goddard Space Might Center, headed 
by Dr. Harry J. Goett; Space Task 
Group, directed by Gilruth. and Wal- 
lops Station, directed by Robert L. 

Under Advanced Research Programs 
were Langley Research Center, directed 
by Floyd L. Thompson; Lewis Research 
Center: Ames Research Center, di- 
rected by Smith J. De France, and 
Might Research Center, directed by 
Paul F. Biklc. 


Soviets Claim World 
Helicopter Records 

Moscow-Soviet Union is claiming 
world speed and lifting records for heli- 
copters. Tass. the Soviet news agency, 
said a "flying crane turborotor helicop- 
ter" lifted a pavlond of 15.103 kg. 
(33.302.12 lb.) to 2.200 meters (7.218.2 
ft.) to set records for payload and alti- 
tude with such payload. Apparently 
this was the Mil flying crane seen at 
Tushino (AW July 17, p. 30). 

Tass also said the Mil-6 helicopter 
on Sept. 21 averaged 320 kph. (198.85 
mph.) over 1 5-25 km. (9.3-15.5 mi.). 

The previous world record was set 
in the U.S. when a Navv Sikorskv IlSS-2 
flew at 192.9 mph.. met a 1.86 mi. 
straight line course (AW May 22, p. 33). 

Titan I Is Launched 
From Operational Silo 

I.os Angeles— First launch of a 
USAF-Martin Titan 1 Intercontinental 
ballistic missile from an operational- 
type silo took place on Sept. 23. A 
dummy warhead carried by the missile 
landed in the predicted impact area 
near Wake Island 4.500 mi. from the 
launching site at Vandenbcrg AFB. 

First underground launch of a modi- 
fied Titan I from within a Titan II 
silo took place from Vandenberg last 
May (AW May 8, p. 30.) 



Electrical Propulsion Engines Tested 

Republic’s pulsed pinch plasma electromagnetic engine (above) uses nitrogen as working 

to plasma, pinched and accelerated bv pulsed power, starting as voltage stored in capacitor 
banks around the engine. Exhaust velocities arc on the order of 100.000 mph. Pulsing 
rate can be as high as 10 cycles per second, which produces an almost continuous thrust. 
Hughes’ electrostatic engine (below) uses cesium as propellant, contact ionized by diffusion 
of the cesium vapor through hot tungsten. Engine will be flown late next year in the first 
of a series of 10 Scout-boosted payloads with electrical propulsion systems. Hughes engine 
has operated a total of 40 hr., continuously up to about four and one-half hours. Specific 
impuisc is 8,700 sec. with 10.000 volts accelerating potential. Thrust developed is on the 
order of two millipounds (0.002 lb.) at efficiency of about 62%. 





Boeing-Vertol HC-1B Completes First Hover Tests 

Annv/ Boeing- Vetto] HC-1R Chinook helicopter has completed first hover phase of its flight test program. The twin-turbine helicopter 
weighed 121 tons during the hover test. The HC-IB is being developed by USAF Aeronautical Systems Division for the Army. 


Dr. Charles Herzfeld Appointed 
As Project Defender Coordinator 


Washington — Advanced Research 
Projects Agency has named Dr. Charles 
M. Herzfeld as coordinator of its ex- 
panding Project Defender program— 
the Defense Department's advanced 
research effort for ballistic missile de- 
fense. Herzfeld. a 55-year-old physicist, 
comes from the National Bureau of 
Standards where he was an associate 
director. 

Herzfeld also will direct personally 
two of the four major technical areas 
under Defender. The remaining two 
will be under Albert M. Rubenstcin, 
who previouslv directed the entire 
program. 

The more reflects the growing num- 
ber of Project Defender programs 
which require Defense Department di- 
rection. Defender is the largest pro- 
gram in ARPA. funded for SI 04 mil- 
lion in current fiscal year which repre- 
sents about 55% of the agency's total 

Data on ballistic missile re-entry ob- 
tained to date under Project Defender 
has been used to enhance the ability 
of Nike Zeus radars to discriminate 
between ICBM warheads and other 
types of re-entry objects. ARPA has 
been asked to submit its views on the 
technical effectiveness of Nike Zeus for 
use bv Defense Department in deciding 
whether to recommend initial pro- 
duction of the anti-ICBM missile sys- 


tem for Fiscal 1963. 

The Project Defender program cur- 
rently encompasses these four major 
technical areas: 

• Research, to increase basic knowl- 
edge of the atmosphere and ionosphere. 
For example, ARPA is sponsoring the 
radar with l,000-ft.-dia. antenna now 
under construction in Puerto Rico, 
which wall be used to measure electron 

• Missile phenomenology, a term ap- 
plied to the obtaining of data on the 
behavior of ICBMs at launch and their 
warheads during re-entry by measuring 
their electromagnetic radiation over a 
wide portion of the spectrum at various 
altitudes. Initial measurements were 
made by a specially instrumented ship, 
the USS Mariner, but far more ex- 
tensive facilities arc now under con- 
struction on RoiNamur Island, near 
Kwajalcin, in the Pacific (AW Apr. 17, 
p. 69). ARPA also has a small site for 
making such measurements at the Na- 
tional Aeronautics and Space Adminis- 
tration’s Wallops Island facility. 

More than half of the Project De- 
fender funds are allocated for the mis- 
sile phenomenology portion of the pro- 
gram, which involv es costly facilities. 

• Components and techniques, such as 
advanced radars, antennas and other 
devices especially suited for ICBM de- 
fense, which are not being developed 


for other uses by other agencies. Typi- 
cal of this effort is the electronically 
Steerable array radar (ESAR) devel- 
oped by Bendix Corp. ARPA also is 
funding advanced work in optical 
masers (lasers) and plans to increase 
its programs in this field. 

• Systems, intended to explore the 
feasibility of more promising ICBM 
defense concepts and to provide guid- 
ance on what new components and 
techniques arc needed. Two such pro- 
grams now under way include ballistic 
missile boost intercept, known as 
Bambi, and ARPA terminal defense, 
known as Arpat. The former includes 
study contracts with Convair. Space 
Technology Laboratories and Hughes 
Aircraft (AW Apr. 24. p. 23; May 1, 
p. 23). The Arpat study prime con- 
tractor is Raytheon, with Hughes, Boe- 
ing and International Business Ma- 
chines Corp. as subcontractors (AW 
July 3, p. 29.). Lincoln Laboratory also 
will play a major role in evaluating radar 
techniques. 

The research and missile phenome- 
nology portions of the Project Defender 
program are under the direction of 
ilcr/fcld, while the components and 
techniques and systems portions are 
under Rubenstcin. Ilcrzfcld's new 
title is Assistant Director for Ballistic 
Missile Defense Research. 

Officials at ARPA believe the agency 
has sufficient funds to support worth- 
while investigations in the ICBM de- 
fense field and that no new feasible ap- 
proaches are likely to appear until more 
information is available on the nature 
of the threat and its environment. 


AVIATION WEEK 


SPACE TECHNOIOGY, October 2, 1961 


the telecommunications field of the 
failure to ratify the treaty drawn in 
December, 1959, by the International 
Telecommunications Union. 

U. S. is now initiating negotiations 
aimed at obtaining frequency alloca- 
tions for operational space systems- 
mcteorological and communications— 
at the 1963 conference of ITU. It 
would be on a poor footing to present 
its case to the overwhelming majority 
of countries more interested in alloca- 
tions for political broadcasting if the 
space research allocations already avail- 
able had not been approved. 

Until the treaty was ratified last week. 
National Aeronautics and Space Admin- 
istration was also saddled with months 
of red tape in negotiating bilaterally 
with other nations for frequencies for 
space research projects. 

The Defense decision opening the 
way for ratification was channeled 
through the agencies responsible for 
implementing it in hours: from Defense 
to Interdepartment Radio Advisory 
Committee, to Federal Communica- 
tions Commission, to Sen. William 
Fulbright (D.-Ark.) chainnan of the 
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

ADC Grounds F-106s 
After Trio of Crashes 

Convair F-106 Delta Daggers have 
been grounded by the USAF Air De- 
fense Command as a precautionary 
measure following three crashes, one 
of them fatal. ADC said the order ap- 
i-i • m ■ plies to training and transition flving 

Lommunicat ion 1 reaty a „d does not affect the emergency capa- 
Te Rof ifiorl Tiv Sprints bilit y of units operating the aircraft. 

IS Iiailliea D> senate Presumably, these units would scramble 

Washington— Senate last week unan- if the order were given but will not 
imously ratified a telecommunications engage in practice alerts until the 
treaty allocating radio frequencies grounding order is rescinded, 
world-wide for space research, radio as- The exact cause of the accidents has 
tronomv, air navigation and radioloca- not been determined at this time, ADC 
tion. said, adding that precautionary ground- 

Thc action came after Defense De- ing is a standard procedure in the case 
partment unexpectedly— and apparently of a series of unexplained crashes. The 
at White House direction-capitulated three accidents which precipitated the 
on the eve of congressional adjournment grounding occurred at Minot AFB. 
and agreed to give airlines pennanent N. D., Kincheloe AFB, Mich., and at 
access to the 8,800-mc. band for their Geiger Field, Spokane. Wash, 
dopplcr air navigation system. No definite cause has been found 

Air Transport Assn, and Aeronautical for the accidents nor does there seem 

Radio, Inc., had successfully blocked to be any trend to them. The fatal 

ratification as a strategy to force this crash at Spokane occurred while an 

action (AW Sept. 11 p. 36). ATA F-106 was on final approach for land- 

estimated the planned airline investment ing. The aircraft suddenly dived into 

in dopplcr installations— which would the ground from what appeared to be 

be useless without access to the 8,800- a normal approach, 
me. band— at over S10 million. The grounding order applies to all 

Previously, airlines were permitted models of the Delta Dagger and will 

only "temporary" access to the band, remain in effect until factors causing 

used by Defense for air defense and the crashes have been determined ana 

target radiolocation. remedial action taken. Inasmuch as 

The White House was notably con- there seems to be no trend established 
ccmed over the implications to the in the three crashes, it is entirely pos- 
spacc program and U. S. leadership in sible they are unrelated, ADC said. 


GE Drops Satellite Bid 

Washington — General Electric has 
withdrawn from contention for part 

tion satellite system, leaving the field to 

GE Vice President Dr. George L. 
Haller, in a letter last week to Federal 
Communications Commission Chainnan 
Newton Minow. said that the company 
was dissolving its Communication Satel- 
lites. Inc., formed earlier this year as a 
nucleus for ownership and operation of 

svstem. and withdrawing its request for 
FCC licensing. Haller, who heads GE’s 
Defense Electronics Division, was chair- 
man of the board of Communication 
Satellites, Inc. 

Haller said the company fully snpports 
"the President’s decision to encourage 
the establishment of a privately owned 
communication satellite system as quickly 
as possible in a manner consistent with 
the public interest. It is urgent that this 
be done so that the U. S. will not be 
pre-empted by the Soviet Union from 
the critical opportunity to be first." 

The letter said GE had reviewed its 
position recently in the light of the in- 
creased national space program and had 

the carrier communications field, but to 
concentrate on its traditional role as a 
manufacturer of space vehicles and rc- 


News Digest 


Western Electric has received SI 71.8- 
million contract from Army for contin- 
ued development of Nike Zeus ICBM 
defense missile system, bringing total 
funding for the program to date to 
more than SI billion. Douglas Aircraft, 
major Zeus subcontractor, will receive 
S57-7 million of new award. 

Charles E. Wilson, 71, former presi- 
dent of General Motors Corp. and Sec- 
retary of Defense from January, 1953 
until October, 1957. died Sept. 26 at 
his plantation home near Norwood, La. 

Raytheon has received S42.4-million 
Navv Bureau of Weapons contract tor 
additional production of Sparrow III 
air-to-air missiles, part of special con- 
gressional appropriation for stepped-up 
defense production. 

William C. Foster, formerly head of 
the Gaither Committee and president 
of United Nuclear Corp., has been 
named to head the U. S. disarmament 
agency' established by Congress at the 
request of President Kennedy. The 
agency starts operations with a $2-mil- 
lion budget for Fiscal 1962; SI million 
from the transfer of State Department 
funds and SI million in supplemental 
funds voted last week by Congress. 

Tactical Air Command has trans- 
ferred eight additional squadrons-two 
equipped with Lockheed F-104s and 
the other six with North American 
F-lOOs— to the 17th Air Force on a 
“temporary” assignment. Purpose of 
the transfer was officially described as 
“overseas operational training.” 

West German air force publicly dis- 
played its Lockheed F-104s and Fiat 
G.91s for the first time last week at an 
air show at Furstenfeldbruck. Crowd 
was estimated at 500,000 people. 

Deutsche Lufthansa West German 
airline is expected to' scrap its commit- 
tee-rule concept of management this 
week and name an operating president 
as its top executive during the carrier’s 
annual stockholders’ meeting in Co- 
logne. Major contender for the post 
is West Germany’s controversial min- 
ister of transport, Hans Seebohm. 

John A. McCone, former head of 
the Atomic Energy Commission, was 
nominated last week by President Ken- 
nedy to succeed Allen W. Dulles as 
Central Intelligence Agency director. 

White House-appointed bioastronau- 
tics panel (AW Aug. 21, p. 26) will 
meet in Washington, D. C., this week 
to hear a NASA briefing on the subject 
and to lav plans for the group’s activi- 
ties in the next few months. 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOIOGY, Oc 


sr 2, 1961 


AIR TRANSPORT 


Chances for Promotional Fare Plan Slim 


Lower North Atlantic rates proposed in mail ballot 
but approval before winter slump hits is doubtful. 

By L. L. Doty 

Washington— Reaction to a Pan American World Airways proposal for 
promotional fares on North Atlantic routes, designed to compromise wide- 
spread industry differences on tariff issues, demonstrates that international 
airlines are still far from any accord on rate reductions. 

In a last-ditch move to introduce an incentive fare that two International 
Air Transport Assn, traffic meetings failed to produce. IATA Director General 
Sir William Ilildred submitted the PanAm plan to member airlines for a 


However, it appears that results of 
the voting will fall far short of the 
unanimous approval required to put 
the plan into effect and the industry 
will move into the low-traffic-density 
winter season without the promotional 
fare most carriers want. 

PanAm has proposed that groups of 
not less than 25 persons may travel 
round trip across the Atlantic on sched- 
uled jet flights at regular fares less SI 86 
throughout the year. Between Apr. 1 
and Sept. 50. group round-trip travel 
would be allowed on piston aircraft at 
SI 72 less than regular rates. Between 
Oct, 1 and Mar. 51. on piston aircraft, 
rates would be SI 65 less than regular 

Tire group fare principle, generally 
supported by international airlines, is 
aimed at offsetting the diversion of 
traffic from scheduled operations to 
charter flights, which have been grow- 
ing rapidly in popularity during the 
past few years. Attempts to adopt a 
group fare plan for the North Atlantic 
area at special traffic meetings in New 
York and London last summer (AW 
Aug. /. p. i(i) failed because of sharp 

'Affinity Clause' 

Superficial objections also appear 
likely to doom the Pan American plan. 
For example, one major carrier which 
had insisted that the group fare include 
an "affinity clause”— a major source of 
argument responsible for deadlocking 
the traffic meetings— has been conceded 
this point in the PanAm proposal. 

But that carrier now- says it will vote 
against the plan because it fails to allow 
groups to break up within Europe once 
they have reached the first point of 
arrival. The affinity clause requires 
that groups must have some identifica- 
tion as an organization. This is to pre- 
vent travelers from forming a group 


solely for the purpose of gaining the 
advantages of the low fare. 

PanAm. in its proposal, also withdrew 
its earlier demands that groups be re- 
quired to make two stops during a tour 
to qualify for the group fare, another 
condition that was a major factor in 
blocking agreement during the two 
meetings. 

Specifically, the reaction ranged from 
the statement of one carrier that it is 
"now in the process of evaluating the 
plan" to that of another which charged 
that Pan American had stirred new in- 
dustry antagonism by reviving issues 
that could not be resolved over con- 
ference tables and certainly will not be 
settled by correspondence. 

Another Effort 

The fare problem very probably will 
flare up as a major issue at the forth- 
coming IATA annual general meeting 
later this month in Sydney. Australia. 
At this time, airline chiefs undoubtedly 
will make an extreme effort to reach 
some agreement on the group fare pro- 
gram. but past attempts to settle traffic 


Carriers Seek 

Review 

Washington— Four fo 


-British Overseas Ainva 

s Corp.. KLM. 

Sabena and SAS-havc 

ded a petition 

with the U.S. Court o! 

Claims for the 

District of Columbia for 

judicial review 

of the Civil Aeronautics 

Board order re- 



U. S. to submit traffic ai 

d schedule data 

with the Board. 


In the complaint, t 

e four carriers 

asserted that the CAB holds no jurisdic- 

tion over schedules of 


tiers. The original order 

as been severely 

criticized bv foreign f 

ag carriers and 

several attempts have be 


a reversal. 



conference differences at general meet- 
ings have not always been successful. 

On the brighter side, one major 
foreign flag carrier said that the pro- 
posal “at least lays a plan on the table” 
and that the mail vote may provide 
comments which could be used to fuse 
the proposal into an acceptable plan. 
Another factor that could bring about 
an eventual agreement on the group 
plan is the general fear of the declining 
load factors anticipated for the forth- 
coming winter season. Most carriers 
recognize the immediate need for a 
plan that will boost traffic volume. 

Intended effective date of the Pan 
American plan is Nov. 1. But the 
schedule for balloting is so tight that 
failure to approve flic plan initially 
could delay the effective date well into 
late winter if it is amended to the 
satisfaction of all members. Ballots arc 
scheduled for return to IATA no later 
than Oct. 11. 

If it is approved by all 17 carriers, 
the new tariff will be filed Oct, 12 and 
1 5 with the governments of the air- 
lines involved for formal approval. 
Compromise Attempt 

In submitting its proposal, PanAm 
stated that the plan does not, and can- 
not, conform to all views, including its 
own. that were brought out at the 
special New York and London meet- 
ings. It stated that the plan is based 
on the discussions at these meetings 
and is designed to reconcile divergent 
positions as far as practicable. 

The proposal specifics that the group 
fare will be available to “members of 
the same association, corporation, com- 
pany or other legal entity . . . which 
shall have principal purposes, aims and 
objectives other than travel. . . 

To broaden the group market. Pan 
American further proposed that spon- 
taneous group travel organizations can 
take advantage of the low fare, provided 
that each member of the group has 
belonged to it for at least six months 
prior to the starting date of the trip. 
Members mav include their immediate 
families in the trip at the special rate. 

All members shall be required to 
travel together for the entire itinerary. 
This condition drew the support of 
seven carriers at the London meeting, 
but five carriers argued that group 
members should be permitted to travel 
individually except during outbonnd 
and inbound legs of the full itinerary. 

Solicitation of travel groups would be 
limited to personal letters, circulars 


36 AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


CAB, Justice Reappraise Policies 
On Foreign Carriers Competition 


and telephone calls addressed directly 
to members and to publications in- 
tended for circulation within the group. 
Airlines would be prohibited from sel- 
ling groups by “public solicitation,” 
which is defined by Pan American as 
describing the group feature in adver- 
tisements or any other writing or 
means of public communication, 
whether paid or unpaid. Use of tele- 
phone campaigns, radio, telegraph and 
television to solicit group business 
would also be prohibited. 

Airlines with limited sales outlets 
within the U. S. arc likely to protest 
this provision of the plan, although the 
Civil Aeronautics Board will undoub- 
tedly require such a condition before 
giving its approval to any group fare 

As a concession to carriers concerned 
over the diversionary effects of the 
group rates. PanAm proposes that east- 
bound travel during May. June and 
July and westbound travel during Au- 
gust. September and October across the 
North Atlantic sector of any itinerary 
may not be started between 7 a.m. 
Friday and 7 a.m. Monday. 

Other features of the plan include: 

• Full |iayment of all tickets must be 
submitted to the carrying airline 50 
days prior to the flight. 

• F.ach ticket must be endorsed to show 
that the passenger is a bona fide mem- 
ber of the group. 

• Group travel organization shall make 
available to the IATA enforcement of- 
fice all records supporting its eligibility 
for the group fare discount. IATA en- 
forcement office also shall be entitled 
to interview and obtain information 
from any member of the group. 

• Group fares shall not be used for con- 
struction of around-thc-world fares. 

• Reduced fares for children may be 
applied to the group fare. 

• Free or reduced fare transportation 
for a tour conductor will be prohibited. 


Ox Carts to Airplanes 

Washington— Senate Aviation Sub- 
committee Chairman A. S. Mike Mon- 
roney (D.-Okla.) has some unsolicited 

n, ' n 8 :l transportation system: go from ox 
carts to airplanes without stopping to 
build millions of dollars of highways. 

In a recent hearing. Monroney con- 
tended that rather than build highways 
or prestige airlines to operate chiefly 
outside Hie underdeveloped countries, “a 
few airports and modern inter-regional 
craft could bring them forward in an 
economic posture far faster . . . .” He 
said countries should realize “the great 
advantage of skipping perhaps the high- 

air age for connecting their country.” 


Washington— Civil Aeronautics Board, 
with the help of the Justice Depart- 
ment. is reappraising its policies toward 
foreign carriers in hopes it can develop 
stop-gap measures to improve the com- 
petitive position of U.S. lines in the 
international market. 

Relief actions under consideration 
include putting rate restrictions on for- 
eign carriers, allowing LLS. flag carriers 
to enter into pool arrangements so over- 
seas traffic can be apportioned, and 
letting U.S. carriers buy into foreign 

These would be emergency steps to 
give U.S. carriers temporary relief. The 
measures would be superseded by the 
new U. S. policies now being evolved 
at the direction of President Kennedy. 

Impetus for new aviation policies 
comes from the widespread conviction 
that the U. S. government currently is 
putting its own carriers at a disadvantage 
in the fierce international competition 
for air traffic. There is dissatisfaction 
with the bilateral agreements with for- 
eign governments and with the U. S, 
government inability to protect its car- 
riers from foreign restrictions not au- 
thorized in such agreements. 

Both government and industry wit- 
nesses at a recent hearing before the 
Senate aviation subcommittee said the 
situation will become worse unless 
prompt action is taken. Chairman A. S. 
Mike Monroney (D.-Okla.), for exam- 
ple, said the competition from foreign 
carriers will increase markedly once 
Russia starts offering cut-rate air trans- 
portation. 

"We would be blind indeed.” Sen. 
Monroney said. “. . . if we ignored the 
likelihood of a strong aviation drive to 
orient air commerce toward Moscow 
rather than toward the U. S. as being 
one of the threats we face." He added 
that the Senate could "ill afford to sit 
here and let the air transport world 
system reach the chaotic condition that 
has developed through the years in the 
maritime field.” 

CAB Chairman Alan S. Bovd noted 
that the U.S. carriers’ share of interna- 
tional traffic declined from 74.7% of 
the total to 54.7% between 1950 and 
1960. Part of the trouble, he said, 
stems from CAB’s inability to enforce 
provisions of U. S. air agreements with 
foreign countries. Another problem, he 
added, is the lack of CAB authority to 
regulate international air fares even 
when it feels a foreign carrier’s fare will 
hurt U. S. lines. Legislation giving CAB 
this authority was not acted upon by 
Congress this year. 

Boyd said the CAB has not been 


able to keep foreign governments from 
imposing restrictions on U. S. carriers. 
“Our recourse.” Boyd said, “is to lodge 
formal complaint of violation of the 
agreement, but. pending the conclusion 
or consultations for the review of such 
complaint, we arc operating on the 
other governments’ terms.” 

To strengthen CAB's hand in inter- 
national matters, Boyd said the Board 
“is now considering the legal and policy 
aspects” of putting rate restrictions in 
the permits the U.S. gives to foreign 

Bor d said “we are becoming increas- 
ingly concerned” with the foreign air- 
line pools under which the carriers 
divide up the market among them- 
selves. "It is apparent that a number 
of these [pool] arrangements involve 
violations of the anti-trust laws of the 
U. S.,” he said. 

The Board has asked the Justice De- 
partment to determine whether U. S. 
carriers forming similar pools would 
violate the anti-trust laws, he said. 
“Board policy in interpreting the Fed- 
eral Aviation Act has opposed U.S. 
carrier participation in such pools be- 
cause of their generally inhibiting ef- 
fect on competition.” Boyd said. “But 
it may be that continuing study of the 
matter and future developments in this 
area will indicate the need for a reshap- 
ing of this policy.” 

Citing “increasing penetration" by 
big foreign carriers into smaller ones 
through partial ownership and lease 
arrangements. Bovd said the Board's 
Cubana decision opposing the same 
type of ownership by U. S. carriers may 
have to be changed. 

Edwin M. Martin, assistant secretary 
of state for economic affairs, told the 
aviation subcommittee that “the ob- 
jective of the U. S. for enlightened 
leadership in the development of inter- 
national civil air transport is being im- 
paired by the current inability to im- 
plement U. S. international aviation 
policies and programs in the face of 
major new problems and issues.” 

Martin welcomed the private study 
of international aviation problems re- 
cently authorized by President Kennedy. 
Martin said the research contract is ex- 
pected to cost between S225.000 and 
5500,000. and the study is expected 
to take nine months. 

The staff of the Senate aviation sub- 
committee will conduct its own study 
of international air problems between 
now and when Congress reconvenes. 
Sen. Monroney said he will hold hear- 
ings early next year on international air 
agreements. 


AVIATION WEEK 


SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


Ethnic Ties Push Irish Carrier’s Traffic 


By Glenn Garrison 

New York— Stress on economy fares 
and exploitation of a built-in U. S. mar- 
ket have helped Irish International Air- 
lines, a North Atlantic operator only 
since 1958, to make a respectable show- 
ing this year when most of its competi- 
tors arc suffering the financial woes of 
a crucial overcapacity situation. 

During the peak eastbound month of 
June, 1961, the Irish carrier achieved 
the highest load factor of any Inter- 
national Air Transport Assn, member 
on the route, with 80% of its seats 
filled. In July, Irish International's load 
factor was 77% eastbound. second only 
to El A1 Israel’s 81%. The Irish airline 
now is showing a margin of profit, and 
expects to be in the black at the end 
of 1961. 

Among the factors the Irish carrier 
cites as favoring its operation are: 

• Ethnic market in the U. S. of Irish 
descendants and immigrants, who com- 
posed an estimated 95% of the airline’s 
business at the beginning. The carrier 
has been seeking to broaden its market 
beyond the ethnic group, and reports a 
reduction to 75-80% of its total business 
at present. 

• Low-fare philosophy which resulted in 


an all-economy service until December, 
1960, when the airline's first Boeing 
720 jets entered sen-ice. Advertising 
has been, and is consistently, geared to 
the economy market and the jets are 
operated with only 12 first-class scats of 
a 120-seat total. 

• Market research program which the 
airline says has enabled it to pinpoint 
its U. S. markets and to establish a 
formal index of potential in various 

Research Program 

The research program, which began 
in late 1959 with the establishment of 
a market research and sales development 
unit in New York, involves a statistical 
approach which the airline says is un- 
usual among transatlantic carriers. 
Most data sources within the airline 
industry use a scat-mile basis, according 
to the Irish carrier, and by departing 
from that criterion to a simple total- 
passenger basis many other sources of 
data become usable. These include 
gross national product, census data, in- 
come level statistics and the like. Fac- 
tors important to Irish International 
Airlines include the number of ethnic 
Irish in a potential area, number of 
passports issued, religion and income 


brackets that are prevalent in the area. 

(Religion is related to the ethnic 
Irish population, and for this reason 
Irish International advertises in Catho- 
lic newspapers.) 

A formula was developed for inte- 
grating such data and this formula has 
been in use since last spring. The air- 
line claims it was able to forecast 
monthly traffic levels to Europe both 
for itself and for the industry within 
3-5%. 

Irish Airlines’ U.S. markets were 
pinpointed in seven major locations. 
Ranking in order of present importance, 
they arc New York, Boston, Philadel- 
phia, Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, 
I.os Angeles, Cleveland and Washing- 
ton. However, the Cleveland area is 
considered greater in potential business 
than Chicago. Concentration of its 
natural markets enables the carrier to 
pinpoint them and derive more for each 
advertising and sales dollar— perhaps 
50% more than other international car- 
riers, in the airline’s estimate. 

In analyzing its ethnic market, Irish 
Airlines puts the Irish in two categories 
referred to as “push” and "pull." The 
"pull” category contains native born 
and first-generation Irishmen who feel 
a natural sentimental pull to visit the 





Two British Transport Helicopter Designs Studied 

Model of a twin-turbine stretched version of the 25-passenger Boeing Vertol 107 (left) was displayed at 22nd exhibition of the Society 
of British Aircraft Constructors, Farnborough, England (AW Sept. 11, p. 27) by D. Napier & Son, Ltd. This version, shown in New 
York Airways markings, would carry 33 passengers. It is being proposed by Napier in conjunction with Boeing Vertol. It would be 
powered by two advanced Napier Gazelle turbine engines of 2,000 shp. mounted on the aft fuselage. Model at right shows the Westland 
194, civil version of the Westland Belvedere. Four de Havilland Gnome turbines svould power the six-bladcd rotors. Rotor heads probably 
would be supplied by Sikorsky Aircraft Division of United Aircraft Co. if the helicopter is ever built. At present, it is a backup design to 
the Westland Rotodvne project. 


AVIATION WEEK ond SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


old sod. The “push” elements are fur- 
ther removed generations who must be 
sold, or pushed, on the sentimental 

However, Irish International by no 
means expects to rely entirely oh its 
ethnic advantages. For example, diver- 
sion of a small percentage of the 
tourists who visit Europe without a 
stop in Ireland would greatly increase 
the airline’s traffic. 

Since tourist facilities have been 
lacking for expanded Irish tourism, the 
airline is participating financially in the 
construction of new hotels, one each in 
Dublin, Cork and Limerick. Scheduled 
for completion in 1963, they will be 
operated by Irish International’s part- 
ner in the project. Intercontinental Ho- 
tels Corp., a subsidiary of Pan American 
World Airways. 

Economy Market 

Irish International’s sales efforts will 
continue to be aimed at the economy- 
market. This agrees with its basic view 
that first-class business will continue to 
decline and the low-fare mass market 
is what will fill airline seats. 

"The future of the Atlantic is cheap 
fares,” James O. Lcet. the Irish car- 
rier’s vice president for North America, 
said recently. Fare reductions arc “ab- 
solutely essential," he said, particularly 
in the off season, but also all year-round, 

Leet said he had anticipated a poor 
season in the summer of 1960. when 
Irish International was still operating 
leased Lockheed 10491 1 Constellations 
and most other carriers had their jets. 
But the piston fare was lower than jet 
fare, and the airline played this up in 
its advertising to its primarily tourist 
market. Result was a good summer 

The airline is extremely conscious 
of the current overcapacity problem. 
Leet said, and plans to do its own 
scheduling in the future in terms of 
what its analyses show the market will 
bear. Next summer, for example, capa- 
city is expected to be about the same 
as in 1961. The airline now has three 
jets and, Lcet said, will acquire more 
equipment only when the need devel- 
ops. 

Business Travel 

Irish International has found its pri- 
mary market among tourists, but now 
is striving to acquire more business 
travel. However, it is gearing its pro- 
motion to business travelers on an 
economy-fare basis. For example, the 
headline for one advertisement invites 
corporations to cut their executive 
travel costs by more than one half by 
using 1 7-day economy excursion instead 
of traveling’ first class. Another ad in- 
cludes a plug for the airline’s first-class 
service, but adds “But why spend so 
much money? Your economy flight 


leaves nothing to be desired in comfort. 

It might be noted that some other 
transatlantic airlines recently have been 
advertising their economy fares against 
first class. But the Irish carrier points 
out that they are in a better position 
than most to sell the business traveler 
economy instead of first class: Until 
last December, they had an all-ccon- 
omv service anyway, and their first-class 
business market now amounts to very 
little compared with the established 
business or other carriers. 

Airline Philosophy 
As an indication of the Irish Airline 
philosophy- regarding lower fares. Aer 
Lingus. which is the sister corporation 
to Irish International Airlines and op- 
erates to and within Europe and the 
United Kingdom, is now considering 


Washington— White House has sent 
copies of the long-awaited Project Bea- 
con report to interested government 
agencies for their comments, which 
were due late last week. 

Barring strong objections, the report, 
prepared by a special task force ap- 
pointed by Federal Aviation Agency 
Administrator Najceb Halabv and 
headed by Richard Hough, is expected 
to be released shortly. 

Report Recommendations 

The report will recommend that FAA 
make increased use of air defense radars 
but not adopt the SAGE computers 
for traffic control, as suggested by some 
Air Force representatives (AW Sept. 
IS, p. 38). Although the Beacon report 
recommends that radar, with altitude 
information orovided by radar beacons, 
sene as the primary traffic control 
mechanism, it will urge use of digital 
computers for traffic flow scheduling 
and conflict prediction, both en route 
and in the terminal area. 

The report will suggest that the 
Librascope computer, originally devel- 
oped under FAA sponsorship as part of 
its new semi-automatic traffic control 
system, be adapted for use in the radar 
control system. A production version 
of the Librascope computer now nearing 
completion is expected to be installed 
at the new Atlanta air route traffic con- 
trol center instead of in the new Boston 
center as originally planned (AW Aug. 
2S. p. 52). 

Initially the Librascope computer will 
be used to store flight plans and print 
out flight progress strips, a function 
similar to that perfonned by older 
Univac computers installed at several 


the introduction of a new high-density, 
low fare service within Europe. Instead 
of the present 60 seats in its Vickers 
Viscount 800 equipment, about 78 
seats would be used in this short-haul 

About 15-20% of Irish Inter- 
national’s current traffic, incidentally, is 
now carried beyond Ireland by Aer 
Lingus. During the peak of last sum- 
mer’s season, the 720s of Irish Inter- 
national made several runs a day from 
Ireland to London on Aer Lingus 
routes. 

During the Irish carrier’s first part- 
year on the Atlantic, which began in 
late April, 1958, the airline carried 13,- 
380 passengers in both directions. The 
total was 23,278 in 1959. 34,500 in 
1960. Tli is year, the estimated total will 
reach 43,500. Next year, a traffic in- 
crease of 20-25% is forecast. 


other centers. As techniques for en 
route and terminal area scheduling and 
conflict prediction are worked out by 
FAA’s National Aviation Facilities Ex- 
perimental Center, the report recom- 
mends that they be introduced. 
However, it recommends that increased 
emphasis be given to tenninal area 
scheduling, rather than en route. 

The prototype tabular bay consoles 
with mechanized updating of flight 
strips, intended as part of the original 
FAA semi-automatic traffic control sys- 
tem, arc nearing completion at General 
Precision, Inc. and Burroughs Corp. 
The agency has not. so far. taken any 
action to cancel these programs, despite 
the Project Beacon recommendation 
that radar scopes replace flight strips 
as the primary controller reference. 
Original Viewpoint 

When FAA originally launched its 
traffic control system development more 
than three years ago, it held the view 
that flight strips, long used by traffic 
controllers, should be retained to case 
the transition to the new system and to 
assure that failure of the new equip- 
ment would not leave controllers with- 
out data on aircraft under their control. 

In the intervening period, experience 
gained by controllers using new en 
route and tenninal area radars suggests 
a reversal of this thinking, according to 
the Beacon task force. 

Although the report urges early im- 
plementation of radar beacons for auto- 
matic altitude control, and says this will 
eliminate any need for early implemen- 
tation of data link, it does not urge 
FAA to halt its data link development 
studies. 


Project Beacon Report Will Urge 
Use of Radar, Digital Computers 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


39 



Shell Research reports on 
5 advances in fuels and lubricants and discloses 
how they improve aircraft performance 


1. First non-ash additive oil for 
piston engine aircraft. AeroShell® 
Oil W is the first fully compounded 
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major piston engine manufacturer in 
the U. S. AeroShell Oil W is the first 
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It helps keep engines cleaner, ex- 
tends periods between overhauls, can 
even lengthen engine life. 

2. Shell grease lubricates X-15 as 
it sets world’s speed record. 
Twenty-four greases were tested for 
use on the X-15 rocket plane. Only one 
—AeroShell Grease 5A' B — passed all 
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Today, AeroShell Grease 5A guards 
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it sets new speed records for manned 
aircraft. 

AeroShell Grease 5A is also recom- 
mended for commercial and private 

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lab. Shell Research built and operated 
one of the petroleum industry’s earliest 
laboratories designed to investigate fuel 
performance in full-scale turbine en- 
gine combustion systems. This paid 
off in 1955 when the first airline intro- 


duced turbine aircraft. Shell was ready 
with the fuel. 

Shell has the most extensive turbine 
fuel distribution network in the nation 
for general aviation and sold over a 
billion gallons of aviation fuel last year. 

Today, Shell is the leading supplier 
of commercial aviation fuel in the U.S. 

4. First turbine fuel equipment 
lab assures maximum cleanliness. 
Shell set up the first U.S. laboratory 
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craft fuels and lubricants assures 
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many of today’s satellite vehicles. 


Special note to airport dealers 

Shell offers independent dealers 

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are backed up with the solid expe- 

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A BULLETIN FROM SHELL 
-where 1,997 scientists are helping to 
provide better products for industry 


Northeast Balks at Terms for Merger 


New York— Northeast Airlines’ "con- 
tinued financial deterioration" will ne- 
cessitate cliangcs in the merger-dismem- 
berment proposal made by Eastern, 
National and Mohawk (AW Sept. 25, 
p. 35-1) to reflect Northeast’s delay in 
agreeing to the plan, a representative 
of the three carriers said last week. 

Extending a Sept. 26 deadline for 
decision that Northeast— which has se- 
rious objections to some aspects of the 
proposal— failed to meet, the three car- 
riers wrote Northeast Chairman David 
A. Stretch that “. . . specific financial 
considerations involved in the offer 
must be subject to adjustment reflect- 
ing the delay.” 

Last week Northeast refused com- 
ment on the implied financial penalties 
for delay, but said that prompt and 
proper consideration would be given to 
the extended proposal. Because of the 
difficult questions concerning legal and 
practical feasibility of the plan, it has 
been referred to legal counsel for re- 
view and recommendation, Northeast 

Expressing willingness to meet with 
represen tatives of the three carriers. 
Stretch said in a statement that CAB 
had already made a Northeast merger 
a subject of consideration in the cur- 
rent Florida route renewal procedure 
and that the three carriers’ proposition 
as well as any others would be consid- 
ered on its merits. 

Moreover, Stretch said. Northeast’s 
renewal application “is being vigorously 
opposed” by Eastern and National. 

The three carriers wrote Stretch 
Sept. 22 and advised him that their pro- 
posal, dated Sept. 15, had not been 
answered and ”. . . the financial condi- 
tion of Northeast continues to deterio- 
rate.” Hence, the proposal would be 
withdrawn unless by 5 p.m. Sept. 26 
Stretch indicated “. . . your acceptance 
of and/or your willingness to recom- 
mend such a proposal in principle, as 
chairman of Northeast and president 
of Atlas.” 

Stretch replied Sept. 26 that the 
deadline was inconsistent with the 
other carriers’ stated intention to leave 
the offer open for a reasonable time. 
Northeast had had about one working 
week to consider the complex proposal, 
Stretch said. There are "serious unre- 
solved questions as to the legal and 
practical feasibility” of the proposal, 
Stretch said. These include the pro- 
posal that only specified obligations 
will be assumed by the merged com- 
pany and only specified assets applied 
to obligations not assumed, leaving 
Northeast with the burden of satisfying 
obligations. (The proposal, among other 
things, would relieve the merged com- 


pany of S26 million of debts that arc 
held by Hughes Tool Co. and the Atlas 
Corp., and the merged company would 
not be responsible for Northeast’s trade 
accounts outstanding.) 

Stretch also said the proposal does 
not resolve difficult questions relating 
to the relative rights of creditors, or 
rights of stockholders in relation to 
such creditors: is subject to conditions 
over which Northeast has no control; 
and is predicated in major part . . 
upon an asserted need to restore sound 
economic conditions in air transporta- 
tion in the territory screed by North- 

Regarding the New England routes, 
the proposal would help restore eco- 
nomic conditions. Stretch said, but in 
the case of Northeast's routes south of 
New York, the airline is “bv no means 
prepared to concede” the existence of 
unsound economic conditions in air 

Practical problems in connection 


Washington— Merger of Riddle Air- 
lines and Aero via s Sud Americana, 
which would give Riddle through-plane 
cargo service from interior U.S. points 
into 13 Latin American countries, has 
been recommended by a Civil Aero- 
nautics Board examiner. 

If the merger receives approval of the 
Board and the President, the Aerovias 
route system would give Riddle access 
to certain points in Mexico, every Cen- 
tral American country, the South 
American countries of Colombia, Ecua- 
dor, Peru. Venezuela and a point in 
Brazil. 

CAB Examiner fames Keith found 
that the two systems, which meet in 
Miami, would "integrate perfectly.” 
Riddle currently holds authority to op- 
erate domestic cargo flights between 
Miami and Boston via New York, 
Philadelphia, Baltimore. Washington 
and several Florida points. Another 
segment allows Riddle to fly between 
Miami and the co-terminals Chicago 
and Detroit via Indianapolis. Cincin- 
nati, Cleveland and Atlanta. Riddle 
also has a New York-Miami-San Juan. 
Puerto Rico route. 

Aerovias is operating only over por- 
tions of its authorized route system. It 
now operates two flights weekly be- 
tween Florida points and Ecuador, via 
the Canal Zone, and a weekly flight 
between Florida, El Salvador and the 
Canal Zone. Riddle has indicated that 
if the merger is approved, it initially 
would operate only on part of the 
Aerovias system. 


with the proposal. Stretch said, include 
the burden of expenses which would be 
involved in carrying out the plan. 
Stretch said Northeast is not now in a 
position to commit itself "because of 
the uncertainties inherent in your pro- 
posal. the nature of the conditions 
which you have specified and the short 
period of time which is now permitted 
us for consideration of the problems 

Answering Stretch in a letter dated 
Sept. 27, the three carriers described 
Stretch’s objections as “for the most 
part a recapitulation of problems in- 
volved in any merger." They are rec- 
ognized, the carriers said, as requiring 
careful and skillful handling on both 

The offer of Sept. 1 5, the carriers 
said, is not withdrawn and is continued 
in effect until further notice. But the 
financial considerations, they noted, 
must be subject to readjustment be- 
cause of the delay. 


Pan American Airways, Braniff Air- 
ways, and Panagra opposed the merger, 
on the grounds that it would give 
Riddle a competitive advantage. 

PanAm, Braniff and Panagra have 
raised some doubts about Riddle's 
ability to operate profitably over the 
Aerovias system. 

In rejecting the protests of Pan 
American and Panagra, Keith noted 
that both carriers have applications be- 
fore CAB seeking to expand their own 
systems to provide service similar to 
that Riddle would have under the 
merger. Keith said CAB had recognized 
that combination carriers like Pan 
American and Panagra belonged to a 
different class than all-cargo carriers. 
CAB from the beginning of the all- 
cargo experiment has accorded cargo 
lines separate treatment, Keith said. On 
this basis, Keith felt, the Board is not 
compelled to give special consideration 
to the objecting carriers. 

Terms of the merger call for Riddle’s 
offering to buy Aerovias stock at $1.25 
per share for common stock and S6.375 
for preferred stock. Aerovias has 
146,238 shares of common and 20,088 
shares of preferred stock outstanding. 
Or. Aerovias stockholders could ex- 
change common stock for Riddle com- 
mon stock on a one-to-one basis. One 
share of Aerovias preferred stock would 
bring 5J shares of Riddle common 
stock. If all Aerovias stockholders elect 
to be paid in cash, cost to Riddle would 
be $311,058. Aerovias currently owns 
one DC-4 and one C-46 aircraft. 


Examiner Approves Riddle Merger 


AVIATION WEEK ond SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 


sr 2, 1961 


Changes in MATS’ International 
Service Rates Proposed by CAB 


Washington— Changes in Military 
Air Transport Service rates for interna- 
tional operations have been proposed 
by Civil Aeronautics Board after a sur- 
vey of the military charter industry’s 
operations under minimum rates set a 
year ago. 

CAB set the minimum rates on Oct. 
1, 1960, after an extended period of 
losses by contracting carriers. In a study 
aimed at improving criteria for mini- 
mum rate determination in the light 
of one year’s experience, CAB asked in- 
terested airlines for suggestions to im- 
prove rate making practices. 

The Board asked contractors to sub- 
mit figures for operating incomes and 
expenses for the first year of operation 
under rate floors. It also requested pro- 
jections of operating costs for Fiscal 
1962 reflecting the use of turbine pow- 
ered aircraft such as the Canadair 
CL-44 and Boeing 707. MATS was 
also asked to contribute any informa- 
tion that might help establish satisfac- 
tory rate standards. 

As a result of the study, CAB made 
recommendations that changes of mini- 
mum rate policy be made in four areas: 
• Minimum rate levels. The impact of 
larger, more economical turbine pow- 
ered aircraft on the MATS charter mar- 
ket has led CAB to propose lower rates 
for certain MATS operations. Pro- 
posed minimum rate for round-trip 
passenger charters is 2.7 cents per pas- 
senger mile. The present rate is 2.9 
cents per passenger mile. The present 
one-way rate of 4.2 cents per passenger 
mile would remain because CAB feels 
it is properly related to operating costs. 

Round-trip cargo charter rates would 


be dropped from 13.75 cents per ton 
mile to 12 cents. One-way cargo char- 
ter rate would be lowered from 22.5 
cents per cargo mile to 21.5 cents. 
Convertible (passenger one-way and 
cargo the other) charter rate for round 
trips would be 13.8 cents per ton mile 
instead of 16,5 cents. 

• “Open-jaw" flights. Round-trip 
flights with a non-revenue leg— a por- 
tion of the trip where the aircraft trav- 
els empty— have been a long-time prob- 
lem for MATS. These "open jaw” 
flights are now contracted at the one- 
way rate for each leg. Proposed rule 
changes would make this type of oper- 
ation a round-trip flight for rate pur- 
poses, subject to three limitations. 

One limitation provides that round- 
trip flights may not terminate at any 
airport over 250 mi. from the point at 
which the trip originated. Tin's will 
allow the military to use different air- 
ports in the same general area without 
extra costs. CAB figures that the car- 
riers’ costs need not go up since they 
usually have to ferry the aircraft to and 
from the point of origin anyway. 

Another limitation provides for a 

exceed 50 statute miles This would al- 
low nearby airports to sene as turn- 
around points. The final restriction is 
a provision for a ferry flight en route 
not to exceed 500 miles at onc-half the 
regular rate. 

• Rate making mileage. Mileage used 
as a basis for minimum rate calcula- 
tion would be nonstop statute miles 
from airport-to-airport via any inter- 
mediate points in the contract. Excep- 
tion would be made for transpacific 


charters. Pacific mileages would be 
based on a minimum one-stop opera- 
tion via either Alaska or Hawaii, which- 
ever is the shortest distance. 

• Minimum cabin loads. Provision will 
be made for specification of minimum 
cabin loads for additional types of air- 
craft as they become available for use. 

'Hie new rates, if adopted by the 
Board, will affect Fiscal 1962 MATS 
contracts let last June. Contracts have 
a clause providing for rate revision in 
the event the CAB makes any change 
in rate policy. CAB hopes the new 
rate policy will allow carriers more 
managerial flexibility and at the same 
time pass on to MATS several million 
dollars in savings resulting from use of 
modern equipment. 

BOAC Opens Appeal 
On Cunard Decision 

London— British Overseas Airways 
Corp. last week opened its appeal 
against a British Air Transport Licens- 
ing Board decision in favor of allow- 
ing Cunard Eagle Airways to operate 
two Boeing 707-420s from London to 
New York on a daily schedule. 

BOAC's appeal stresses that a drop 
of 11% in transatlantic traffic this sum- 
mer under last year (AW Aug. 14. p. 
52) and that the entry of Cunard Eagle 
on this route will result in a material 
diversion of traffic from BOAC. 

BOAC also contends that the board 
grant to Cunard Eagle is a strange de- 

the board’s ruling acknowledged there 
would be some diversion from BOAC. 
BOAC’s view is that the diversion will 
be wasteful in view of BOAC's heavy 
commitment for Vickers VC.10 jet 
transports (15 VC.lOs and 30 Super 
VC. 10s). 

Jet Transport Skids 
Into Harbor at Boston 

American Airlines Boeing 720 turbo- 
fan transport with 71 persons aboard 
last week overshot a 7,500 ft. runway at 
Boston's Logan International Airport 
and skidded off the field into eight feet 
of water in Winthrop Bay, coming to a 
stop some 30 ft. from land. All persons 
aboard were rescued bv pleasure boats in 
the area. 

Plane skidded about 400 ft. on land- 
ing, veered to the right across land for 
an estimated 100 ft. before skimming 
into the harbor. Pilot of the aircraft. 
Captain T. E. Jonson, made the land- 
ing under instrument conditions in 
foggy weather. The accident occurred 
at 11 a.m. Sept. 24. 

Both port engines, nose wheel and 
landing gear were ripped from the fuse- 
lage when the plane hit the water. 


Pan Am Heliport Hits Snag 

New York— Negotiations between New York Airways and Pan American World 

now under construction here, have been snagged by a dispute over allocation of the 
heliport’s traffic capacity. 

PanAm wants indirectly to restrict the number of charter services New York 
Airways would be able to provide for PanAm’s competitors in connections between 
Idlewild and the Manhattan heliport. New York Airways, on the other hand, 
doesn't want to serve PanAm |>assengers exclusively in the charter operations 
expected to operate at certain times of day to connect with international flights. 
Common carriage services are not involved. 

PanAm has alrcadv signed an agreement with Grand Central Building Corp., 
owner of the building, under which PanAm will pay half the cost of the heliport 
construction. But New York Airways, if it is to be the operator— as it is almost 
certain to be— must be a third party to the agreement, and is understood to have 
balked at the degree of control allocated PanAm. 

PanAm probably will construct another heliport on its own terminal at Idlewild 
so it can have direct service between it and the midtown New York facility. 
The airline is chief lessee of space in the PanAm Building, which is scheduled for 
completion in 1963. 


42 AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


Consortiums Urged for SST Development 


Delft, Holland— Political and tech- 
nological consortium agreements be- 
tween Western European nations and 
the United States should be reached to 
speed development of supersonic trans- 
port aircraft, Georges Hcreil, president 
of France's Sud Aviation believes. 

The company presently is developing 
a Mach 2-plus airliner based largely on 
its Caravelle experience. 

Delivering the Albert Plesman Me- 
morial Lecture in Delft, Holland, Ilereil 
declined to side with either faction in 
the current dispute over required per- 
formance for such an aircraft— Mach 
2-plus as the British industry' contends, 
or Mach 3-plus as most U. S. spokes- 
men demand. He said, instead, there 
is room for both, Europe concentrating 
upon a Mach 2.2 "transcontinental" air- 
craft, the U. S. upon a Mach 3.5 "trans- 
oceanic'' transport. He told the Delft 

"It would seem that, in the matter 
of supersonic aircraft, there are two 
potential fields: 

• “An aircraft seating roughly 100 pas- 
sengers, economical to operate over dis- 
tances of from 1,250 to 2,800 mi. and 
capable of flying at Mach 2.2, i.e., con- 
structable with the materials used in 
the present manufacture of aircraft. 
Such an aircraft would be called ‘trans- 
continental.’ 

• “A ‘transoceanic’ aircraft which, ac- 
cording to preliminary calculations, 
would pay its way if it were made to 
fly at a speed of roughly Mach 3.5 and 
which would therefore require steel in 
place of light alloys.” 

Cost of each program, Hereil said, 
would be such that "no single aircraft 
constructor or any single group of air- 
craft constructors . . . [could] afford to 
risk such enormous sums, for the per- 
formance of supersonic aircraft is so 
extraordinary that relatively few of them 
are ever needed." He estimated devel- 
opment costs for the Mach 2.2 aircraft, 
including instruments, equipment, en- 
gines, tools and testing, at approxi- 
mately S400 million. Similar costs for 
the Mach 3,5 transport would be about 
S600 million, Hereil said, adding: 

“There is one simple conclusion to 
be drawn from all this: that in this par- 
ticular field, private enterprise must 
give way to an inter-state organization. 

I should like the West to realize this 
and to undertake accordingly a work 
of wholehearted cooperation at the in- 
ternational level.” 

On the European side, Hereil said, 
the French and British governments 
“could draft the essential features of 
a common policy with which the gov- 
ernments of the other aircraft-produc- 
ing countries of the West— Belgium, 


Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, Sweden 
and Switzerland— could become as- 
sociated." 

French and British government and 
industry spokesmen have been discuss- 
ing such an agreement for some time 
now with no positive results thus far. 
As a possible partner— Of competitor— 
for Herefl’s Super Caravelle project is 
the British Aircraft Corp., which 
recently completed the design of a 1 30- 
passenger Mach 2.2 transport, a highly 
swept delta with a wing resembling that 
of the Handlev Page 1 1 5 research 
plane (AW Sept. 18, p. 47). 

In his speech, Hereil said, “The 
manufacturers are ready to take this 
new turning” toward cooperative de- 
velopment, although in France Sud and 
Dassault, named by the government 
to cooperate on a supersonic transport, 
apparently have not yet been able to 
agree on a uniform design. 

“The manufacturers have accepted 
their responsibilities: it is now for the 
governments to speak,” Hereil said. 

Once the European consortium has 
been arranged, “a second negotiation 
would then follow between the Euro- 
pean governments on the one hand and 


Washington — Federal Aviation 
Agency, acting after a series of incidents 
in which Douglas DC-8s veered off run- 
ways shortly after touchdown, last week 
instructed U. S. airline operators to use 
a new reverse thrust procedure to slow 
DC-8 landings without hydraulic brake 
pressure. 

Reverse thrust should not be applied 
until all of the transport's wheels arc 
firmly on the ground, the FAA directive 
said. Outboard turbojets should not be 
reversed until the DC-8 pilot ascertains 
that the plane's inboard engines actually 
are producing reverse thrust, it warned. 

On the DC-8, a series of lights 
warns the flight crew when the air- 
craft's thrust reverser buckets have as- 
sumed the proper position after landing. 
Possibility that this light circuit may 
chronically malfunction now is being 
studied by an FAA team investigating 
recent turbojet landing incidents. 

FAA also is studying whether touch- 
down impacts could move thrust re- 
verser buckets out of reverse position, 
thus creating an extreme asymmetric 
thrust situation that many believe to be 
responsible for the DC-8 incidents in- 
volving swerves off the runway. 

Because turbojets have been landed 


the U. S. government on the other to 
divide and allocate the work on the 
projects in question-the U. S. govern- 
ment undertaking to support the trans- 
oceanic project and Europe the trans- 
continental. 

"Both American and European con- 
structors would have complete freedom 
of initiative.” 

Hereil, however, in possible reference 
to the inroads shorter-range versions of 
the Boeing 707 transport and other 
aircraft have made into Caravelle mar- 
ket areas, laid down a sharp dividing 
line between the two efforts: 

"The agreement should be made 
. . . that any state aid they might re- 
ceive— whether directly or indirectly— 
must sene to promote such over-all 
cooperation of efforts as would ensure 
that two sources of aircraft, both com- 
plementary, were created with the 
transcontinental reserved for Europe 
and the transoceanic reserved for the 
U. S." 

Most U. S. discussions in this field 
envision large amounts of government 
aid, both in money and design con- 
tributions, as do their European 
counterparts. 


safely with brakes locked on one side, 
or with nosewheels cocked at sharp 
angles, some investigators reason that 
only asymmetrical reverse thrust could 
produce off-runway turns sharp enough 
to result in loss of control. 

Douglas, Boeing and Convair have 
been visited by FAA’s hydraulic mal- 
function trouble-shooting team, as have 
the maintenance bases of every carrier 
operating U. S.-built turbojets. Their 
comprehensive report on jet hydraulic 
problems should be forwarded to FAA 
Administrator N. E. Halaby sometime 
this month. 

Meanwhile, at Halaby’s direction, 
FAA air carrier inspectors are giving 
short tests to an industry-wide sample 
of DC-8 aircrews to determine whether 
airlines have trained their pilots ade- 
quately on DC-8 hydraulic emergency 
procedures. 

Preliminary statistics show that the 
frequency of DC-8 hydraulic malfunc- 
tions is not "substantially higher" than 
comparable Boeing 707 and Convair 
880 malfunctions, an FAA engineer told 
Aviation Week. Most of the prob- 
lems, he said, occur near the high pres- 
sure side of the system where pump 
output averages 3,000 psi. 


Reverse Thrust Landing Method 
For DC-8s Is Ordered by FAA 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 



TO THE JETS 


FROM 

THE “JENNY” 


SINCLAIR HAS SERVED AVIATION, 

BOTH COMMERCIAL AND MILITARY, AS A PRIME SUPPLIER 
OF FUELS AND LUBRICANTS. THERE IS NO BETTER PROOF 
OF RELIABILITY. 

Sinclair 

AIRCRAFT OILS 

SINCLAIR REFINING COMPANY 

Aviation Sales, 600 Filth Ave. • New York 20, N.Y. 


V Sinclair 1 


American, Flying Tiger File Cargo Tariffs 


By Janies D. Hendricks 

New York— American Airlines and 
the riving Tiger Line have filed sepa- 
rate proposals with Civil Aeronautics 
Board for new air freight tariff struc- 
tures, each carrier taking a different 
approach to the longstanding problem 
of air cargo volume growth rate. 

American's proposal, a streamlined 
and highly simplified “single rate” 
covering virtually all commodities and 
offering volume discounts and lower 
rates for non-peak shipping hours, will 
go into effect Oct. 23, subject to CAB 

Flying Tiger has proposed a new 
tariff structure which retains rate dif- 
ferences for types of commodities but 
provides for an over-all lowering of 
hundreds of rates on many items from 
a general average of about 181 cents 
per ton mile to 131 cents per ton mile. 
Flying Tiger wants to put the new 
rates into effect Oct. 16. 

While CAB has not officially ap- 
proved either proposal, the board in 
the past has publicly encouraged car- 
riers to seek new methods for increas- 
ing cargo volume. 

American executives termed their 
proposal as an "attempt to bring order 
and simplification into air freight 
tariffs." pointing out that the several 
thousand commodity rates now in use 
create bottlenecks in moving air freight. 

One official said that American ex- 
pects its return to remain at approxi- 
mately the same level under the pro- 
posed new single rate structure, even 
without an increase in cargo volume, al- 
though the line hopes to attract more 
volume with the new tariff. American 
grossed almost $25 million from air 
freight in 1960 and has experienced 
record high months this year. In Au- 
gust, the carrier logged more than 11 
million ton miles of air freight, a 
monthly record for domestic carriers. 

The "single rate" tariff was de- 
veloped by American after 18 months 
of study, using electronic data process- 
ing equipment to establish uniform 
point-to-point rates, volume discounts, 
non-peak discounts and other standards. 

Hie proposed American tariff struc- 

• Tapered rates which decrease as ship- 
ment distance increases. 

• Directional rates, which follow the 
traditional air freight principle of lower 
rates for castbound shipments com- 
pared with westbound. 

• Volume discounts for large shipments. 
These range from 75 cents off per 100 
lb. for 1..000 lb. shipped over distances 
of 501-1,000 miles to $4 off per 100 lb. 
for 10,000 lb. shipped more than 1,800 


miles. Discounts from the rate per 100 
lb. are provided for cargo loads of 1,000, 
2,000, 3,000. 5.000 and 10,000 lb. 

• Promotional rates for shipments ar- 
riving at the airport during the non- 
peak air freight hours of 9 a.m. to 3 
p.m. on major long-haul routes. Dis- 
counts of 255? off the proposed single 
rates will be offered on non-peak ship- 
ments between New York and Chicago 
and between Los Angeles or San Fran- 
cisco and Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, 
New York or Chicago. 

Eugene C. Taylor. American's vice 
president-cargo, said the single rate 
proposal will result in lower rates than 
now offered on some commodities and 
higher rates on others. He added that 
volume discount appeal would be 
enough to offset any loss of revenue 
from shippers who will face higher 
rates if the proposal goes through. 

The only commodities excluded from 
the single rate in American’s proposal 
arc such items as animals, which re- 
quire special handling and will bring 
higher rates than the standard, and a 
few perishables, such as flowers and 
vegetables, which will draw lower rates. 

American officials listed these ex- 
amples of the proposed single rate: 

A 100-lb. shipment from Los Angeles 
to New York will cost 517.90 where 
previouslv the charge ranged from 
SI 5.95 for commodities such as nuts 
and bolts to S26.60 for some electrical 
appliances and parts. The New York 
to Los Angeles rate will be S23.75 per 
100 lb., following the directional rate. 

From San Francisco to Chicago, the 


Soviet Bush League 

Moscow— Aeroflot has been accused of 
letting its bush plane services in Siberia 
deteriorate while concentrating on the 

Residents of the rugged area cast of 
Lake Baikal complain that the single- 
engine Yak-12 is being used for flights 
that should be made with faster, longer- 
rangc twin-engine craft having greater 
payload capacity'. Thcv say that a plane 
such as the Antonov' An-14 “Pchclka" 
(Little Bee) is badly needed, but no one 
seems to know when this new short- 
haul transport will go into service. 

One resident of the Baikal back conn- 
trv described the vagaries of Siberia bush 
flying to a Moscow reporter: "When 
a plane is available, there s no pilot: and 
when there's a pilot, there’s no plane. 
When there arc both a plane and pilot, 
vou can’t buv a ticket. And when plane, 
pilot and ticket are all available, the 
weather's too dirty for flying." 


new 100-lb. rate will be S13.90 com- 
pared with a present range of S12.25 
for pharmaceuticals to $20.35 for auto- 
mobile parts. The Chicago to San 
Francisco single rate will be $18.50. 

American executives are not con- 
cerned about possible revenue losses 
that might be attributable to bulky 
commodities which would require large 
amounts of shipping space and yet 
would be charged lower rates under the 
proposed tariff. 

Virtually all of American’s cargo 
runs under 250 Cu. in./lb., an official 
explained. The very few items which 
would exceed 250 cu. in./lb. would be 
charged for two pounds under a rate 
which American has used since it en- 
tered the air freight business 17 years 

Flying Tiger’s proposed tariff struc- 
ture, under development for two years, 
is designed to “establish a flexible tariff 
structure geared to the actual cost of 
transportation and provide the air 
freight industry with its first opportu- 
nity to break out of its traditional role as 
a mere emergency carrier of goods," a 
company official stated. 

"We’re courting customers who now 
use surface transportation," one official 
remarked. “We don’t feel that a single 
rate proposal necessarily will lure these 
shippers away from surface transport.” 

Flying Tiger’s proposal is keyed to its 
acquisition of Canadair CL-44 trans- 
port aircraft, four-engine turboprop, 
swing-tail freighters which the company 
claims can carry 65,000-lb. payloads at 
400 mph, for less cost than other air 
freighters now in use. 

Flying Tiger’s tariff proposal sepa- 
rates commodities into seven classifica- 
tions based on density or weight per 
cubic foot, with higher-density cargo 
loads subject to lower rates. 

Rates are based strictly on mileage 
between origin and destination. Only 
one weight break is included in the class 
rate structure, a rate reduction estab- 
lished for shipments weighing 5,000 lb. 

Following are simple rate reductions: 

• Westbound — Electrical equipment. 

10.000 lb. from Boston to Los Angeles, 
from 28.15 cents per pound to 17.8 
cents; aircraft engines, 9,000 lb. from 
Hartford to Seattle, from 23.5 cents to 
1 5.7 cents; printed matter from Chi- 
cago to San Francisco, from 20.35 cents 

• Eastbound— Auto parts from Los An- 
geles to New York, from 26.6 cents 
to 16.8 cents: scientific instruments 
from Los Angeles to Chicago, from 
19.6 cents to 11.9 cents; seafood, 

10.000 lb. from Seattle to New York, 
from 13.9 cents to 10.5 cents. 


AVIATION 


ad SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


Air Traffic Control Reserve Proposed 


Washington— Next session of the 
87th Congress will be asked to act on 
a Federal Aviation Agency proposal to 
create a Federal Aviation Service com- 
posed of air traffic control personnel 
who could be ordered to military serv- 
ice during times of crisis. 

Twin bills calling for such a service 
were introduced and sent to House and 
Senate aviation subcommittees just be- 
fore Congress adjourned last week. 

FAA Administrator N. E. Halaby 
said the Federal Aviation Sendee (FAS) 
should remain "basically civilian" in 
character. But “when deemed necessary 
in the interest of national defense by 
the Secretary of Defense.” the FAA 
administrator should be authorized to 
place “selected members and selected 
elements” on military status, he said. 

In addition, the legislation would 
empower the President to call up the 
entire Sendee during war or national 
emergency, thus placing every member 
under the Uniform Code of Military 
Justice. As a result, the government 
could count upon uninterrupted air 
traffic control for both military and 


civilian aircraft despite the circum- 
stances. 

Recommended by the Project Hori- 
zon report last month (AW Sept. 11. 
p. 55), the FAA proposal was set forth 
in a 55-page study entitled “Special 
Personnel Problems in the Federal Avia- 
tion Agency.” Now 2 1 months overdue, 
this study was to have been submitted 
to Congress not later than Jan. 1, 1960, 
under Section 302(g) of the Federal 
Aviation Act of 1958. 

In a letter of transmittal accompany- 
ing the report and attached draft legis- 
lation, Halaby disclosed that fonna- 
tion of a Federal Aviation Sendee had 
been found "consistent with the objec- 
tives of the Administration” by the 
Bureau of the Budget. Department of 
Defense. Halaby said, also is “in full 
agreement with the fundamental as- 
pects" of the FAS proposal. 

This broad intra-agenev agreement 
seemed in ensure the bill’s smooth 
passage through Congress. However, 
Halabv was careful to point out that 
"several vears" would be required for 
FAA to assume full responsibility for 


all military air traffic control functions 
thus implementing a national policy 
goal. As detailed plans are developed 
and submitted to the executive branch 
for review, the present bill may be modi- 
fied by amendments, he said. 

Although initial controller reaction 
to the FAS proposal had not taken 
shape last week, benefits promised FAS 
members by other sections of the FAA 
report minimized the possibility of ser- 
ious discontent. Pointing out that 
“membership in the FAS would be a 
condition of employment” for many 
holding essential FAA positions, and 
that these employes may be made mem- 
bers of the Anned Forces “at any time 
without notice.” the report recognized 
that this factor warranted extra com- 
pensation. It therefore suggested that 
FAS members be eligible tor veterans’ 
benefits. 

These would be granted to Federal 
Aviation Service personnel “in the same 
manner and to the same degree" as they 
are to members of the Armed Forces. 
FAA also said that it is studying addi- 
tional “special" benefits to make FAS 
sendee more attractive. As it now 
stands, the bill allows any FAS member 
over age 50 to retire from the Service 
if he has accumulated 20 years of FAS 
or air traffic control experience. 

Among other recommendations in- 
cluded in the report: 

• FAA employes should receive “reloca- 
tion allowances” to reimburse them 
more fullv for expenses incurred during 
permanent changes of duty station. 

• Working conditions of all Air Traffic 
Sendee personnel should be improved 
with special emphasis on providing 
adequate breaks during each day of 
their 40-hr. work week, decreasing in- 
terior noise levels, installing air condi- 
tioning and improving illumination. 

• Controllers should be limited to a 
6-hr. active work day. To establish 
these new work schedules, FAA plans 
to seek new appropriations from Con- 
gress. 

• Congress should ease certain restric- 
tions so that FAA can pay highly 
educated technical personnel salaries 
competitive with those offered by priv- 
ate industry. The inability to attract 
key engineers is an especially acute 
problem in FAA’s research and devel- 
opment program, the agency points out. 

• Legislation should be passed to enable 
FAA to set an upper age limit on other- 
wise qualified applicants for air traffic 
controller positions. This is because the 
Agency loses approximately 50% of its 
ATC trainees over age 36, as opposed 
to only 10% of those below age 36, 
during their first 1 8 months of employ- 



AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


SHORTLINES 


► Air Traffic Control Assn, will have its 
sixth annual meeting and Air Traffic 
Control Exposition Oct. 30 at the 
Deauville Hotel. Miami Beach. The 

gingers to join in workshop sessions to 
seek solutions to urgent air traffic prob- 


► American Airlines has begun installa- 
tion of a 5300,000 compressor shop at 
its Tulsa maintenance base. There, 
American's technicians can overhaul 
engine-driven and turbo compressors 
used for ventilation, pressurization and 
air conditioning aboard Electras and 
Boeing 707s. First overhauls are due 
to begin Nov. 1. 

► Bahamas Ainvays has reduced fares 
between Nassau and six of the Outer 
Islands. Sample reductions: Nassau-Cat 
Island 524.30, from 529; Nassau-San 
Salvador Island, 537.80, from $43. 

► Brauiff International Airways passen- 
gers no longer must reconfirm reserva- 
tions on return flights. The airline said 
that increased capacity made reconfir- 
mation unnecessary. The rule was 
adopted in 1957 to ease the "no show” 
problem. 

► Central Airlines reports passenger 
traffic for August at 23,696, a 47.1% 
gain over the same month last year. 


AIRLINE OBSERVER 

► Sikorsky Aircraft has begun briefing airlines on its S-65 concept, based on 
its S-64 turbine-powered flying crane. Aimed at the short-haul market, the 
S-65 would cariy 60 passengers at a speed of 1 50 kt. American Airlines. East- 
ern Air Lines and Trans World Airlines were included in initial briefings. 

► Trans World Airlines Caravelle 10A transports, powered by the General 
Electric CJ805-23C turbofan engine, will have nacelle and engine pylon 
modifications to reduce drag, permitting an increase in limiting Mach num- 
ber to Mach .81. Slid Aviation had started production of one or two Cara- 
velles based on an American Airlines order once nearly signed, but dropped 
later when American bought Boeing 727 turbofan transports instead. These 
Caravelles will be acquired by TWA and modified to Caravelle 10A con- 
figuration as far as possible. 

► British Overseas Airways Corp. is self-insuring its Bristol Britannia and 
Douglas DC-7 aircraft in the 1961-1962 fiscal year. Tenns offered by under- 
writers for hull insurance for the entire BOAC fleet were rejected as too high 
by the carrier, but further negotiations for coverage of the Boeing 707s and 
de Ilavilland Comets led to a more satisfactory offer and these airplanes 
are now fully covered by insurers. 

► Federal Aviation Agency is expected to issue a technical service order (TSO) 
authorizing airlines to carry miniature rescue beacons operating at a frequency 
of 121.5 me. instead of the heavier, less effective “Gibson Girl” which 
operates at 8.6 me. 

► Russians may be developing a new jet transport with aft-mounted engines 
in the Caravelle pattern but with T-tail configuration similar to that 
designed for the Vickers VC. 10. Photographs of a Communist Party 
reception for Cosmonauts Gagarin and Titov in Moscow show in the 
background a model of such a transport with Aeroflot markings. Discernible 
details include a long dorsal fin or spine extending forward to the wing and 
a sawtooth wing leading edge. The airplane, which is much larger than 
the Caravelle. appears to be powered bv two exceptionally big turbojet 
or turbofan engines. It is probably a Tupolev design. 


► Federal Aviation Agency has begun a 
program to simplify FAA safety rules. 
This involves boiling down six or seven 
thousand pages of regulations into one 
document containing about 60 simpli- 
fied rules. 

► Landing flares are no longer required 
aboard aircraft operating over water at 
night. I AA allows operators to earn 
flares as optional equipment. 


► Coach service continued to expand during August as the dominant class 
of traffic carried by the domestic trunklines. During the month, coach 
service accounted for 63% of total passenger revenue miles, compared 
with 54% in August. 1960. For the first eight months of 1961, coach 
was 56% of total passenger miles against 48% a year ago. 

► Decision to move the Air Line Pilots Assn, headquarters from the union’s 
own building in Chicago to Washington probably will be made at the next 
ALPA board of directors meeting. A majority of ALPA’s executive com- 
mittee apparently has convinced union President Clarence Savon that the 
transfer is advisable in order to improve liaison between ALPA and the 
Federal Aviation Agency. 


► Northwest Airlines will begin through- 
plane. all-cargo service between New 
York and Tokyo via Chicago, Seattle- 
Tacoma and Anchorage on Oct. 30. 
Initial service will be one round trip 
weekly with a Northwest DC-7CF air 
freighter. 

► Thai International Airways is seeking 
to extend its route system to Manila. 
Philippines. 


► Lufthansa German Airlines will equip its entire jet fleet with the 
DN-101/NC-103 doppler radar navigation system manufactured by Collins 
Radio Co. Installation and maintenance will be handled bv Collins Radio 
Co.. GmbH., of Frankfurt. 

► Nigerian Airways delegation has completed talks with Aeroflot in Moscow 
involving the purchase of Soviet-built aircraft for use by Nigeria's national 
flag carrier, and the training of Nigerian technical and flight personnel by 
Russians in the Soviet Union. No decision has been made but the Nigerian 
delegation has been quoted as being “fullv satisfied" with the results of the 
discussion. 


► Trans World Airlines will begin direct 
service from New York to Cairo and 
New York to Tel Aviv with Boeing 
707-331 jet equipment on Oct. 29. 
Both flights will be three round trips 


► Aeroflot chief Yevgeni Loginov has promised that a passenger version 
of the twin-turbine Mi-6 helicopter will be “presented for testing” during 
the last quarter of 1961. He gave no details on seating configuration, al- 
though earlier Russian statements said the Mi-6 would carry about 80 
passengers. 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 



AVRO 748 

flies into service soon 

The Avro 748, powered by two Rolls-Royce Dart engines, has 
been ordered by leading airline operators in four continents. 

HAWKER SIDDELEY AVIATION 

32 Duke Street, St. James's, London, S.W.1. 


ALPA’s Stand Rejected 
In Southern Dispute 

Washington-Civil Aeronautics Board 
Examiner William Cusiek has rejected 
Air Line Pilots Assn, arguments that 
Southern Airways engaged in unfair 
labor practices when it refused to arbi- 
trate issues raised by union pilots who 
struck the carrier 1 6 months ago. 

Holding that Southern "bargained in 
good faith with ALPA,” Cusiek spe- 
cifically stated that the carrier "was well 
within its legal rights" when it insisted 
on retaining the power to punish union 
pilots found guilty of misconduct during 
the prolonged strike. 

Similarly, Southern’s refusal to rein- 
state the striking ALPA pilots at their 
former seniority Weis— thus affording 
them higher salaries than pilots hired 
to break the strike— did not constitute a 
violation of the Railway Labor Act, the 
Board examiner said. 

ALPA President Clarence N. Saycn 
promptly announced that his union 
would appeal the examiner's decision to 
CAB. Although Southern "appeared" 
to bargain in good faith. Sayen said, it 
actually did so in such a way that an 
agreement could not possibly result. 
Long established contractual rights sup- 
ported the union pilot's insistence on 
retaining their all-important seniority, 
he contended. 

FAA Moves to Develop 
Pilot Voice Recorder 

Washington— Federal Aviation Ag- 
ency has selected United Data Control 
to develop a cockpit voice recorder that 
will preserve pilot conversation in heat, 
water and impact proof containers for 
analysis after an airline accident. 

Although price negotiations still were 
under way last week, a prototype model 
of the recorder should be delivered to 
FAA in about four months. It will 
record and erase every 30 min. 

“Adequate safeguards" will be de- 
signed into the equipment to protect 
pilots from "casual or deliberate snoop- 
ing." FAA reports. 

FAA's Aviation Research and De- 
velopment Service, in tests earlier this 
year, found that special noise filters 
enabled an open microphone to pick up 
and clearly record cockpit conversation 
even over maximum engine noise. The 
recorder, which is to incorporate this 
filter, will weigh not more than 10.3 lb., 
exclusive of shielding. 

Last month’s crash of a Northwest 
Airlines Lockheed Electra at Chicago, 
in which the pilot’s conversation with 
the Midway Airport control tower was 
garbled by other transmissions, appar- 
ently led to selection of a development 
firm (AW Sept. 25, p. 354). 



"runway threshold 
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every time 


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write to Special Products Division, Sylvania Electric Products Inc., Estes 
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AVIATION WEEK ond SPACE TECHNOLOGY, Oclobe 


»r 2, 1961 






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SPACE TECHNOLOGY 


Roving Lunar Vehicles — Part I: 


Roving Lunar Surface Vehicles Studied 


By Barry Miller 

Los Angeles— Roving lunar vehicles 
which could crawl about the moon’s 
surface gathering scientific and recon- 
naissance data and supply ing logistic 
support for manned lunar exploration, 
among their many functions, are being 
investigated by aerospace companies in 
anticipation of impending needs for 
mobile lunar, and eventually planetary, 
surface spacecraft. 

Design concepts for a first generation 
of roving lunar vehicles are now evolv- 
ing. largely stimulated by National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration’s 
projected Prospector program. Pros- 
pector envisions a Saturn booster-de- 
livered lunar bus which would be con- 
trol-landed on the moon's surface. The 
bus might be capable of moving about 
or more likely disgorging a mobile 
vehicle that would rcconnoitcr the 
lunar surface, perform scientific experi- 


ments, obtain an actual sample of lunar 
soil and return it to earth. General 
characteristics of the system— not specific 
mission requirements or detailed design 
characteristics— were given to industry 
over a year ago. But proposal requests 
and the subsequent award of parallel de- 
sign studies for Prospector, expected 
during the current calendar year, were 
delayed several times by NASA and Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory, manager of 
NASA's unmanned lunar and planetary 
programs. 

Surface Travel Interest 

The studies of several companies, 
Boeing, North American Aviation and 
Martin among them, either predate or 
are largely unconnected with the antic- 
ipated Prospector program. Investiga- 
tions of mobile lunar surface spacecraft 
by these three (inns were supported in 
the past by the Air Force, which was 
examining possibilities of lunar observa- 


tories. North American’s interest in the 
practical aspects of lunar surface travel 
dates from 1958, when it suggested a 
stationary vehicle with a satellite 
prowler— as well as a separate mobile 
vehicle— to NASA’s predecessor. 

NASA’s plans for the Prospector pro- 
gram are undergoing re-evaluation now 
and probably will be revamped to get 
more effective support for the stepped- 
up effort to place a man on the moon. 
A number of original Prospector mis- 
sions, possibly including the require- 
ment for the ros ing lunar vehicle, may 
be tacked onto the Atlas-Centaur-Sur- 
veyor program (unmanned stationary 
lunar vehicle) or to the early phases of 
the Apollo (manned lunar vehicle), ac- 
cording to the consensus of industry 
thinking. 

Whatever the outcome of this re- 
evaluation. roving surface vehicles— both 
remotely controlled initially and later 
manually controlled— can be expected 



SOLAR-POWERED roving lunar vehicle, capable of being lofted onto the moon by an Atlas-Centaur-Surveyor spacecraft for purpose of 
reconnoitering lunar surface before heavier mobile lunar vehicles can be landed there, appears as model partially folded (left) and fully 
expanded (right). The 135-lb. stereo television controlled rover can cany 26 lb. of experimental equipment designed for over two months 
life, folds into 40 x 40 x 12 in. package, has range limited by life of storage batteries. Solar panel rotates on mount toward sun. Three 
pairs of legs (right rear pair obscured from view in both photos) with one leg from each pair moving in unison arc tentatively planned 
to provide locomotion at speeds of 2-3 mph. Space-General Coq>. recently proposed tin's rover concept to Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Con- 
trol would be maintained from Goldstonc station in Deep Space Instrumentation Facility. 


AVIATION WEEK 


SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


to perform a multitude of missions in 
unmanned and manned explorations of 
the moon and the planets and in mili- 
tary efforts to gain and hold effective 
control of space. These functions would 

• Examining wide areas of the lunar 
surface beyond the proximity of a sta- 
tionary vehicle— analyzing surface and 
subsurface composition and determin- 
ing the distribution of various constitu- 
ents, measuring physical, thermal and 
electromagnetic properties, locating 

• Obtaining detailed information about 
the lunar surface from television, radar 
and infrared sensors. 

• Mapping large areas of the moon or 
planetary bodies. 

• Locating and preparing landing sites 
for manned lunar landings. 

• Familiarizing a lunar crew through 
displays and return samples of what they 
will encounter on the moon. 

• Aiding in landing and takeoff from the 
moon (i.e., by placing an inspecting 
radio and visual aids at desired points). 

• Assuming much of the burden of ex- 
hausting physical labor for man on the 



ARCHIMEDES SCREW locomotion technique is illustrated in laboratory model above of a 
vehicle configuration being evaluated for suitability on lunar surface in a soil bin at Santa 
Barbara laboratory of General Motors Defense Systems Division. Varying speed of 
individual screws changes vehicle direction. Large, doughnut-shaped wheels (below) which 
might be desirable locomotion technique for lunar roving vehicles that must traverse irreg- 
ular terrain are also under study by General Motors. 


Industry Interest 

As space exploration unfolds, indus- 
try interest in mobile surface vehicles 
will grow. It reached a high point 
several months ago— then slackened 
with the delays in the Prospector pro- 
gram and the intensive diverting ef- 
forts to prepare proposals for manned 
lunar Apollo vehicle competition. 

Companies already involved in 
roving vehicle studies, besides the three 
mentioned earlier, include Aeronu- 
tronic Division of Ford, American Ma- 
chine and Foundry, General Dynam- 
ics/Astronautics, General Electric, 
General Motors, Grumman Aircraft, 
Space-General Corp. and Sperry Rand. 
Others such as Airborne Instruments 
Laboratory and Hughes Aircraft are 
primarily concerned with guidance, and 
control of and communications with 
roving vehicles. Most of these organ- 
izations have submitted unsolicited 
proposals to JPL and NASA or ap- 
prised these agencies of their studies. 

Roving lunar vehicle designs are 
constrained by two primary considera- 
tions— the size and nature of the de- 
livery (booster) system and the lunar 
environment. Close observation of 
lunar surface texture, petrological an- 
alysis, measurement of physical prop- 
erties, fields, particles, atmospheres and 
determination of body structure, all to 
be assembled from data of earlier un- 
manned Ranger and Surveyor lunar 
shots, will feed vital data about the 
moon into the Prospector program. 

The consensus among those con- 
cerned with roving vehicle design is 
that— with the possible exception of the 







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ROVING LUNAR instrument carrier, which would weigh less than a ton and operate from a kilowatt of power obtained from solar cells 
mounted on two semicircular arrays, could roam moon’s surface conducting lunar daytime surveys (left). Radioisotope energy source 
could provide heat for long lunar nights and for energy conversion system that might provide secondary- power. This is one of a family of 
roving vehicle concepts being studied by North American Aviation’s Space and Information Systems Division. Artist’s version of Pros- 
pector system, as envisioned by General Electric Missile and Space Vehicle Department (right) includes solar-powered rover that could 
negotiate 20-dcg. slopes. 3-ft. boulders and 6-ft. crevices on the moon's surface. Rocket launcher (cylindrical structure in center of 
vehicle) could fire small rockets containing lunar samples to earth. High-gain parabolic antenna appearing at viewer’s left on vehicle in 
foreground helps maintain command and control link with NASA's Deep Space Instrumentation Facility. Supported flat circular 
structure is solar panel. Roving vehicle would be soft-landed on moon by Saturn boosted space truck (left background). 


means of locomotion— there are no 
major technological obstacles to suc- 
cessful vehicle design. This is not to 
suggest there arc no major problems 
in vehicle design and control. There 
arc. Controlling a robot vehicle on 
the surface of the moon, roughly .25 
million miles from the earth poses 
tough problems. A transmission time 
delay of three seconds, imposed by 
this distance, will slow controlled ac- 
tions of the vehicle. The extreme con- 
trasts of light and darkness on the 
moon, caused bv the absence of an 
atmosphere, create problems in recog- 
nizing objects. The possibility of easily 
losing a line-of-sight controlled roving 
vehicle on the moon is ever-present. 
Yet these are largely regarded as dif- 
ficult. but soluble, engineering prob- 

As for the delivery system, it will 
restrict both the configuration and 
moments of inertia of any roving vehi- 
cle, engineers at North American point 

The diameter of the payload nose 
cone will set maximum limits on the 
configuration, and the landing dynam- 
ics and stability of the delivery system 
impose limits on moments of inertia. 

Although much of rover vehicle at- 
tention has centered on problems of 
lunar vehicle design and control, ap- 
plicable to varying classes of roving 
vehicles, three classes of vehicle designs 
are evolving. They are: 

• Lightweight rovers-These are small 
vehicles, capable of accomplishing cer- 
tain minimal missions, which could be 
landed on the moon as piggyback vehi- 


cles on lunar shots timetabled before 
Saturn-Prospector or Nova-Apollo 
spacecraft are ready. Primary value of 
these lightweight remote-controlled 
rovers would be to get specific mobile 
missions accomplished as quickly as 
possible. As piggyback shots or even 
as primary payloads for pre-Saturn 
boosters tHese must be small. 

Typical lightweight rover versions are 
Space-General's 135-lb. mobile vehicle 
which is designed to be carried in a 
folded configuration by a support arm 
on the side of a Centaur-Surveyor space- 
craft. General Dynamics/ Astronautics 
has a similar Centaur-Surveyor version 
rover and a miniature rover suggested 
for an advanced Atlas-boosted Ranger 

Aeronutronic is also studying two ver- 
sions of lightweight battery-powered 
crawlers, one a 50-lb. self-controlled 
3-mi. range vehicle that could be rough 
landed on the moon at 3.000g. the 


other a 200-lb. locally commanded. 
20-mi. range rover. 

Tire time advantage to be gained by 
these approaches (particularly Centaur- 
Surveyor) may be dissipating slowly 
with the estimated nine-month slippage 
in Centaur's first flight (AW Sept. 4, 

p. 26). 

• "Prospector” rovers-These would be 
heavier or larger mobile vehicles roughly 
2,000 to 4,000 lb., would have wider 
capabilities than lightweight rovers, but 
would need larger boosters (Saturn), 
hence presumably could not be put on 
the moon as soon as lightweight rovers. 
These are not necessarily restricted to 
Prospector, but the NASA Prospector 
concept prompted their design. 

Perhaps typical of these is a small 
roving instrument carrier, weighing less 
than 2,000 lb., conceived by North 
American and intended for use with a 
Saturn C-l launch vehicle. This three- 
wheel craft, would be powered by a 


Percentage of Surface Represented 



CHART indicates probable percentage of very smooth through extremely rough terrain 
that would be encountered in marias and other areas on moon's surface according to three 
hypotheses of their origin: volcanic origin (V), meteorib'e impact origin (M), and dust 
infall predominant (D). Smooth-rough terminology refers to bicycle smooth and rough 
scheme shown in chart, p. 60. Nature of terrain will be vital constraint of vehicle design. 


AVIATION 


SPACE TECHNOLOGY, Oc 


sr 2, 1961 





An easy "push” to 
connect and "pull” 
to disconnect is all 
it takes to operate 
the new Deutsch 
high-pressure fluid 
and gas coupling. No 
twisting or tricky 
lock movements are 
necessary. Here 
then is an effective 
design that can be 
specified for a 
variety of remote, 
umbilical, modular, 
or rack-and-panel 
applications. Safety 
at high operating 
pressures is assured 
by a color ring that 
provides visual 
inspection for 
positive lock. 

And both coupling 
halves exceed all 
requirements of 
MIL C-25427 for 
fluid loss, pressure 
loss, air inclusion, 
and physical shock. 
Temperature range 
is — 200°F to +450°F. 
To obtain complete 
technical information 
on this advanped 
specification fluid 
and gas coupling, 
write today 
for Data File A- 10. 



LIGHTWEIGHT return lunar surface sample assembly is designed by Space-General to return 1-lb. sample, provided for it by drill rig 
on Surveyor spacecraft, to ocean impact area. Assembly consists of an unguided single-stage solid propellant rocket motor weighing 41 lb. 
which boosts 19-lb. re-entry payload containing sample. Rocket (left) employs a polyurethane ammonium perchlorate propellant having 
small amount of aluminum. Rocket motor has 0.925 mass fraction and with 45:1 area ratio bell shaped nozzle produces vacuum specific 
impulse of 296 sec. at design chamber pressure of 300 psia. Rocket launcher for returning rocket with sample from moon is at right. 


kilowatt of power supplied by solar 
panels during the lunar day and would 
derive a small amount of power for 
limited use during lunar nights from a 
radioisotope energy conversion system. 
Similarly, General Electric’s Missile and 
Space -Vehicle Department envisions a 
rover or mobile laboratory, solar pow- 
ered and moved by two pairs of wheels 
within a radius of 250 mi. from the 
landing site. Sperry Rand has designed 
a 29-ft. long, 14 ft. wide, 2,000 lb. rover 
vehicle driven bv two large spun wire 
core metal fabric wheels with a smaller 
diameter rear auxiliary' wheel. All of 
these vehicle concepts incorporate a 
rocket launcher containing a return 
vehicle that could carry lunar samples 
back to earth. 


This class of vehicle is most popular 
because of impending space agency con- 
tracts. Others. General Dynamics/ 
Astronautics, General Motors and Acro- 
nutronic among them, are studying it. 

Many of these “Prospector” designs 
of necessity are preliminary because 
specific design requirements are not yet 
set. A requirement for night as well as 
day operation, for example, would im- 
pose a heavy burden on the power 
system and might swing selection of 
motive power source from one system 
to another. 

• “Post-Prospector”— These would in- 
clude heavier, more expensive, prob- 
ably later generation lunar rovers which 
would be intended to satisfy more di- 
verse and complex missions of base sup- 


port. Such vehicles probably would have 
provisions for manual control (far easier 
to satisfy than remote control from the 
earth) as well as remote control from 
the lunar base or its control relay sta- 
tions on the moon. 

These designs may overlap Prospec- 
tor. Actually, some Prospector concepts 
already include this flexibility, and it 
may be dictated by the philosophy that 
all soft-landed equipment should be de- 
signed to allow man when he arrives 
later to make maximum use of it. 
Sperry Rand’s system group, guided by 
this reasoning, designed its rover large 
enough and with sufficient controls and 
lifetime for use by the Apollo team 

Space-General’s concept of a light- 



EXPERIMENTAL instrumentation which could be used by Spacc-Gcncral's proposed Surveyor roving vehicle includes a force-penetration 
depth measurement device (left) and a density-void fraction measurement device (right). In former, roving vehicle’s arm and manipulator 
press probe into lunar surface by depressing force spring. A TV camera on vehicle's arm reads depth of penetration from scale on device. 


AVIATION WEEK ond 


TECHNOLOGY, Oclc 






1 1 
P I 

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Management Operating System.® Clark installed 
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MICROSURFACE $ MEGASURFACE < MACROSURFACE 

"BICYCLE" SMOOTH S "BICYCLE" ROUGH > "BICYCLE” SMOOTH TO 

> TO IMPASSABLE < IMPASSABLE DEPENDING 

> ? SURFACE 

LUNAR 

FEATURES 


—MOUNTAIN HEIGHTS - 

DOME HEIGHTS 

CRATER TERRACE HEIGHTS— 

CENTRAL MOUNTAIN HEIGHTS - 

PRESSURE RIDGE 

HEIGHTS 

fi 

CRATER DIAMETER 

FRACTURE AND FAULT WIDTHS 

LAVA VESICLE SIZE 

LUNAR 

MATERIALS 

Sgg 
si 3 

A A LAVA 

PAHOEHOE LAVA 

p 

- VOLCANIC DUST -*K VOL =ti N,C -H^O l R L % BLOCKS 

| " H CINDERS rtUBBLS 

WEN1WORIH 

CLAY GRANULES COBBLES 

, ,,1 ,* 

MOONS 

MILLIMETERS 

CENTIMETERS 

10 I0O 1 1 A A'a 1 1 A 1 



LUNAR SURFACE is characterized by reference to common terminology of what would be smooth or rough to a bicycle wheel in chart 
prepared by Dr. Jack Green, Space Sciences Laboratory. North American's Space and Information Systems Division. Metric scales at 
bottom of chart provide another handy reference. Positive and negative structures refer to protuberances or depressions, respectively, in 
lunar surface. Term “rough” in radar terminology is reserved for material which scatters isotropically, is a function of wavelength and 
differs from bicycle terminology, as shown by triangles on micron scale. These indicate 10-cm. wavelength radar signal (triangle 1) which 
is smooth surface; 170-cm. wavelength (triangle 3) which is rough surface by radar standards. Triangle 4 is limit of telescopic resolution. 


weight lunar vehicle for use as a 
Surveyor passenger, is the result of a 
company study of what could he done 
to take an early look at the moon, ac- 
cording to Jack McKcnney, associate 
director of the advanced design group 
at Space-General. The company’s con- 
clusion was that a long-life (greater than 
two months) high capability vehicle that 
could cover a great range would be 
possible with a small collapsible walking 

The vehicle was designed with ar- 
bitrary specifications on the basis of the 
best estimates of lunar surface condi- 
tions. These anticipate that lunar 
surface is smooth, hard sand, that it has 
general slopes and is not dotted with 
many rocks. Purpose of this vehicle 
would be to confirm and detail these 
expectations. 

The solar-powered roving vehicle 
weighs 1 3 5 lb. and is capable of carrying 
26 lb. of experimental equipment at 
a speed of 2 mph. over the anticipated 
lunar terrain. It folds into a 40 by 40 


in. by 12 in. package for holding on the 
side of the Surveyor spacecraft. 

The vehicle employs a walking tech- 
nique, achieved with three pairs of legs, 
one leg of each pair moving simul- 
taneously with the others. One arm 
holds a television camera for acquiring 
lunar surface data and for service as an 
integral part of a control loop. Another 
arm has a claw or manipulator for 
selecting and operating scientific in- 
struments. Space-General also is study- 
ing a three-wheel version of the same 

Although the vehicle appears top- 
heavy in accompanying illustrations of 
a model (p. 52), its center of gravity is 
actually in the middle of its body. Above 
it are a solar cell panel-the primary 
source of motive power-and a direc- 
tional antenna with 20 deg. bcamwidth. 
The solar cell panel is oriented con- 
tinuously in the direction of the sun 
by a null signal from a crude sun sen- 
sor. The solar cell panel mount axis 
is perpendicular to the plane of rotation 


of the sun and the solar panel rotates 
about this axis. Batteries in the vehicle 
help handle peak loads. 

The absence of winds on the lunar 
surface relieves its designers of fear that 
the vehicle might be easily torqued 
over by a strong gust. 

Three support latches and a swinging 
arm assembly arc proposed as a means 
of attaching the roving vehicle to the 
Surveyor spacecraft. The latches and 
arm arc arranged so that the TV an- 
tenna, solar cell panel, TV camera 
boom, manipulator and legs are held 
securely when the vehicle is stowed 
against the side of the Surveyor. An 
umbilical connector provides limited 
pre-launch checkout capability by per- 
mitting the command receiver, tele- 
metry' and TV subsystems to be 
activated during spacecraft pre-launch 
checkout on the pad. 

The roving vehicle’s subsvstems are 
inactive during the spacecraft's trip to 
the moon. After landing and inspection 
of the surrounding terrain by the Sur- 


60 AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


vevor TV. the three restraining latches 
arc released by command. The roving 
vehicle swings away from the side of 
the Surveyor down to the lunar surface, 
Space-General explains. This action 
disconnects an umbilical connector, ac- 
tivating power and enabling roving 
vehicle legs to extend from a folded 
position. A second set of latches is 
actuated when the swinging arm is 
fully extended, releasing the vehicle a 
short distance above the lunar surface. 
The arm then swings back up against 
the Surveyor. 

Once the vehicle is away from the 
swinging arm a mount which holds the 
solar cell panel and communications 
antenna extends. The vehicle moves 
a short distance from its parent craft, 
while being monitored bv Surveyor tele- 
vision. Once the vehicle is clear of the 
swinging arm. the vehicle receives com- 
mands for independent operation from 
the Goldstone station of NASA’s Deep 
Space Instrumentation Facility. 

The solar panel is commanded to 
position itself to the proper hour-angle 
so that it is normal to the sun line. 
The antenna folds out, and the TV 
camera is commanded to a desired posi- 
tion. TV communications can then be 
established with the earth. A binocular 
vision attachment on camera turret head 
can be selected, the company says, and 
the vehicle commanded to move away. 

Basically new locomotion techniques 
could be produced by current roving 
vehicle studies. A number of locomo- 
tion techniques, including wheels, 
tracks, legs, Archimedes type screws and 
hover systems are under study, 

McKenney says legs appear well 
suited for a small vehicle intended to 
operate on the smooth sand surface 
expected in landing areas on the moon. 
Spider leg arrangements may also be 
desired, other industry sources say. 
where steep or step slopes must be 

Tracks were eliminated from Space- 
General’s rover design because of the 
absence of surface pressure problems 
created by muddy surfaces. The mud 
would create problems in supporting 
loads, would cause slipping, and make 
tracks desirable. The weight to surface 
area of vehicles, which enlarges with 
the vehicle and might make tracks 
desirable, becomes a problem only for 
larger vehicles. 

In general, wheels must have radii 
about twice the size of the height of 
obstacles they must pass. For a small 
vehicle that lias to be folded for trans- 
port. a large wheel size complicates 
packaging of the vehicle into a small 

Walking devices, which Space-Gen- 
eral prefers for its lightweight rover on 
the basis of a preliminary examination, 
arc not looked on as a universal answer 
to locomotion needs of lunar vehicles. 


although the)’ appear satisfactory for 
small vehicles, McKcnney says. 

The walking device appears to have 
a number of advantages. These arc: 

• High efficiency— Walking devices can 
be made with high efficiency. They 
perfonn work only in compacting the 
surface at intervals whereas wheels con- 
tinually impact the ground, incurring 
losses. Hence there is low surface com- 
paction loss for legs. 

• Compactness— Walking systems per- 
mit legs and other appendages to be 
folded easily into compact volume. 
Studies in progress at Space-General 
indicate that a similar compact folding 
arrangement may be possible with 

An unusual roving vehicle configura- 
tion that combines an Archimedes screw 
concept and the sled or runner principle 
is one of three approaches to mobile 
lunar surface vehicles being evaluated 
by General Motors Defense Svstems 
Division. Tire runner of this vehicle is 
in continuous contact with the soil. 
Four screws burrow into or across any 
type of loose soil with steering accom- 
plished by varying the speed of in- 
dividual screws. Such a vehicle. General 


Motors says, might be able to progress 
through loose or fluffy soil even if the 
vehicle is completely buried. 

Models of the screw vehicle, as well 
as a three-axle vehicle with large wheels 
suitable for irregular terrain and a track 
vehicle with the track encircling the 
body for use on either soft or hard lunar 
terrain, are undergoing test in the com- 
pany’s land mobility laboratory. 

Other types of locomotion pointed 
out by engineers from American Ma- 
chine & Foundry Co. in a talk some 
time ago before the American Rocket 
Society include steel wire wheels for 
handling the thermal extremes, low 
pressure rollers or paddle wheel devices 
for negotiating soft or extremely fine 
dust layers. 

Each technique appears to have value, 
depending on size of vehicle, nature and 
slope of the terrain, vehicle mission, 
etc. Several locomotion techniques 
are likely to be studied carefully before 
the first mobile lunar vehicle inches 
across the lunar surface. 

To provide movement, a tractive 
force, greater than the resistance to 
motion, must be developed. This force 
is limited, however, by cohesive and 


Lunar Environment for Roving Vehicles 

Design! of roving lunar surface vehicles will be decisively influenced and con- 

equipment must withstand widely varying temperatures, operate in a vacuum and 
crawl through as yet uncharted terrain. Unlike the earth, the moon has no atmos- 
phere to protect its surfaces and its visitors from radiation, meteorites, possible solar 

On the basis of what is known now or thought to be reasonable assumptions 
about the moon, let Propulsion Laboratory has advised industry on the lunar environ- 
ment model that it can assume for engineering design studies of the Prospector rov- 
ing vehicle. This guide may be supplemented or perhaps altered with the knowl- 
edge to be gained from lunar shots of the Ranger and Surveyor scries. 

Assumed lunar environmental conditions for Prospector roving vehicle include: 

• Slopes in excess of 1 5 deg. will not be encountered, but if they are, industry 
should know probability of spacecraft survival. 

• Lunar atmosphere is a vacuum. 

• Protuberances greater than 10 cm. (roughly 4 in.) will not be encountered fre- 
quently. When they arc. roving vehicles should maneuver around them. 

tion (except the range affecting heat balance) and corpuscular radiation will be small 

• Extent and distribution of crevices and rills arc unknown: the vehicle should avoid 

• Surface temperature varies from a maximum of about +235F to a night-time 
temperature of -245F. Temperature deep in the lunar interior is -40F. Reflecting 
power of the lunar surface is 0.07. 

• Loose particles, about 0.3 mm. in diameter, containing large amounts of silica, 
compose the surface layer whose thickness is 1 to 10 cm. 

• Below the surface laver is a solid material, possibly varying in nature from basaltic 
ty pe of rock to low-density rock froth, and extending to considerable depths. Roving 
vehicle designs will assume a minimum crushing strength of 200 psi. 

• Friction properties of the lunar surface are determined by the surface dust layer. 
Accepted data on the moon is a blend of knowledge gained from classical methods 

of celestial mechanics and observations of emitted and reflected electromagnetic 
radiation. The former is the source of information about lunar volume, mass. 

properties arc gained from visual, spcctrographic, photometric, radiometric, polari- 
metric, telescopic and radar measurements. 


AVIATION WEEK 


SPACE TECHNOLOGY, Oc 


2, 1961 


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on terrain, vacuum surrounding lunar surface and capability of booster, or delivery, system. 
The two curves represent limits of payload weights. 


shear properties of the terrain. North 
American engineers point out. These 
properties limit the slope which can be 
traversed by rolling mechanisms, or 
navigated bv a walking system. But 
the walking system might climb step- 
like ridges that would impede rolling 

The small lunar gravity (one-sixth 
that of earth) results in low static loads 
on the moon. North American notes. 
A 10.000-lb. rover would weigh only 
1,650 lb. Unlike weight, however, the 
inertia of the roving vehicle will not 
change when the vehicle is put on the 
moon. Hence, the dynamic character- 
istics of starting, accelerating, decel- 
erating and stopping will be significant 
—particularly in view of the 3-sec. con- 
trol time lag. 

Vehicle Locomotion 

Description and operation of Space- 
General's lightweight roving vehicle il- 
lustrates one approach to rover vehicle 
locomotion. The two outer rear legs 
move in unison with the right front leg. 
Each step length is one foot; height of 
the step is six inches. The legs are com- 
posed of upper, essentially horizontal 
limbs, lower, vertical members and 
individual feet or base portions hinged 
in the elevation planes. 

The foot motion path minimizes ac- 
celeration forces as the three legs rise 
and advance during each step. Push 
rods controlling leg motion are arranged 
so the step length is not changed ap- 
preciably if the foot rests on an obstacle 
and a spring-loaded vertical-motion 
linkage assures that bumps arc traversed 
in such a way as to disturb the vehicle 
as little as possible. 

A small steering motor can swing 
the front pair of legs to a desired angle. 
To avoid skidding of the rear feet 
during the turning maneuver, the com- 
panv explains, rear legs arc connected 
bv a differential linkage which compen- 
sates for the necessary difference in step 
length or speed between the right and 
left pairs of rear legs. 

Leg Motion Described 

Two cams drive all six legs, one pro- 
ducing motion for the six upper mem- 
bers of the legs; a second one producing 
motion for the six lower members. The 
three upper members on the first set 
of three legs are moved 1 SO deg. out of 
phase with respect to the upper mem- 
bers on the second set of three legs. 
The same pattern is repeated with the 
lower members driven by the second 

The cam linkages are spring-loaded 
to permit stowage with legs in a folded 
position. 

Bearings for the legs and control rod 
joints, the company suggests, could con- 
sist of filled Teflon bushings, flexures 
and anti-friction bearings that are self- 


lubricated and hermetically sealed by 
bellows. This insulates them from dam- 
age by lunar dust. 

Vehicle legs attach to roving 'chicle 
body structure at corners of a T-shaped 
truss assembly which supports the ma- 
jor units. A drive motor and gearbox 
assembly is enclosed in a sealed box 
maintained at atmospheric pressure to 
preclude lubrication and heat transfer 
difficulties. Connections between drive 
cams and push rods are made through 
bellows joints making rotating seals un- 
necessary. Tire motor operates at an 
efficiency of 90% by using low resist- 

tation and a low operating speed of 500 

The solar cell panel must be kept 
pointed at the sun and the antenna at 
the earth. For this reason, the solar 
cell panel and antenna assembly are sta- 
bilized in elevation angle by arranging 
them in a pendulum fashion with low 
natural frequency insensitive to the 
higher frequency disturbances of vehi- 
cle motion. 

The angle at which the antenna and 
solar panel support will hang equals 
the nominal latitude of the operating 


site and will be preset before launch. 
The assembly is connected to the vehi- 
cle through a universal joint which 
permits it to pivot freely in elevation 
but restrains it in azimuth. When the 
vehicle turns, an error signal from the 
sun sensor excites a servo motor which 
maintains a fixed azimuth orientation 
relative to space coordinates. 

A telecommunications and control 
system provides this vehicle with ter- 
rain and performance observation, trans- 
mission to the earth and ground record- 
ing of data, and vehicle control. 
Operational Limitations 

Tire operational concept for the lunar 
vehicle permits it to operate only when 
its solar panels arc illuminated by the 
sun (this occurs during the so-called 
lunar day which equals about 14 earth 
days) and it simultaneously is in line- 
of-sight view of the Goldstone station 
of NASA's Deep Space Instrumentation 
Facility. This comes down to eight 
hours a day operation for a 14 day 
period followed by inactivity for a 14- 
day period corresponding to the lunar 
night. Expected lifetime is about two 
earth months which would enable it 


AVIATION WEEK 


SPACE TECHNOLOGY, Oc 


2, 1961 



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to operate during at least two of these 
1 4-dav stretches. 

A stereo television subsystem pro- 
posed for Space-General's rover would: 

• Permit safe travel over lunar terrain. 

• Enable estimates to be made of width, 
height and depth of nearby lunar sur- 
face objects. 

• Provide visual observation of experi- 
ments while they are in progress. 

• Survey and map the terrain. 

• Guide use of manipulator in making 

• Transmit data requiring wide band- 
width. 

A slow vehicle speed (approximately 
2 or 5 mph.), low TV frame rate (1 
picture per > sec.) and the nearly 3-sec. 
transmission delay add up to one pic- 
ture for every nine feet of vehicle mo- 
tion. This may prove sufficient to 
properly guide the vehicle. 

A command and control subsystem 
will regulate steering, stop-start, man- 
euvers, speed, manipulator control, tele- 
vision operation, running of experiments 
and other physical operations. 

A low-power telemetry transmitter 
will return to the earth data such as 
temperatures, pressures, vibration, etc., 
which don't require wide bandwidth or 
arc not suitable for television presen- 

The solar cell panel power system 
works in conjunction with scaled silver 
cadmium battery cells to which the 
solar cells deliver their outputs during 
portions of the lunar day when vehicle 
is not on a line of sight with the control 
center. Batteries store energy for a 
later use and aid in supplying peak re- 
quirements. A power distribution and 
control panel will regulate power con- 
sumption and batters' charge operations. 
Solar cell output is regulated to pre- 
vent battery overcharge and to compen- 
sate for varied outputs under widely 
varying temperature conditions on the 

Many of the techniques of supplying 
power now used in space vehicles as 
well as techniques expected to mature 
in the future will be applicable to roving 
lunar s’ehicles. Lunar environment. 
North American engineers say. may re- 
quire modifying heat rejection systems 
of power devices under development. 
Power needs may vary from a kilowatt 
or less in small remote-controlled 
vehicles to over 10 kw. for large, manned 
vehicles. 

Individual power systems assayed by 
North American include: 

• Solar energy conversion— These will 
limit operation to lunar daylight per- 
iods. which may prove satisfactory for 
remote-controlled, unmanned rovers. 
Operation of manned vehicles during 
long lunar nights may be desired, and 
with high power requirements of large 
vehicles, solar conversion might not be 
satisfactory for these missions. 


° Internal combustion engines and fuel 
cells— Conversion devices using expend- 
able materials may be useful for large 
manned surface roving vehicles pro- 
vided fuel can be resupplied. A hydro- 
gen-oxygen fuel cell would require 
2,500 lb. of fuel and equipment to pro- 
duce 10 hp. for seven earth days. With 
an average vehicle speed of 2 mph. this 
would provide an operating radius of 
16S mi. 

• Nuclear power— While small nuclear 
supplies offer power on an unexpend- 
able basis, shielding men and equip- 
ment from radiation and the moon 
against contamination add problems. 
Shielding for men and equipment may 
not be excessive for larger roving 
vehicles. Three hundred to 400 lb. 
should be adequate to shield most elec- 
tronic equipment when the 5-kw. Snap 
2 system is employed. Shielding for 
man might run 1,000 lb. depending on 
the vehicle configuration. 

The 30-kw. Snap 8, North American 
points out, offers 10 times the power 
with only a one third increase in weight 
over the 3-kw. version. 

Roving lunar vehicle will be bur- 
dened with many scientific experiments 
ranging from measurement of physical 
and electromagnetic properties to tests 
of the effects of lunar environment on 
biological systems. The larger two of 
three roving vehicle concepts under 
study at Acronutronic are expected to 
be capable of carrying ecological sub- 


svs terns. Many companies describe 
their roving vehicles literally as cr.iwl- 

Tvpical of experiments Space-Gen- 
eral is suggesting for its roving vehicle 
are a driving force versus a penetration 
depth measuring device and a device 
for measuring both density and void 
fractions of lunar material. The com- 
pany says its vehicle can obtain much 
useful information from vehicle per- 
formance instrumentation even though 
it carries only 26 lb. of instruments. 

The driving force vs. penetration 
depth device is similar to a Proctor 
penetrometer. A cylindrical shroud 
with flat circular flange rests lightly on 
the lunar surface. The manipulator 
presses on a force spring at the top of 
the device, pressing a probe, guided by 
the top of trie shroud, into the surface. 
Compression of the spring indicates 
force required to drive the probe. 
Depth of penetration of the probe into 
the surface can be read by the TV 
camera from a scale showing relative 
displacement of probe and shroud. 

A second device measures density 
and void fractions (small volumes be- 
tween particles, such as volumes be- 
tween grains of sand.) The manipulator 
scoops up a sample of lunar surface 
in a cup, scrapes the excess material 
from the cup by running its top under 
a horizontal surface of the vehicle. 
Magnets around the cup’s lip hold it 
against the bottom of two leaf springs. 



Gen. Flickinger Receives DSM 


Brig. Gen. Don D. Flickinger. who retired Aug. 31 as assistant for bioastronautics to the 
commander of Air Force Svstems Command after more than 27 years’ service, received the 
Distinguished Service Medal from AFSC Commander Gen. Bernard A. Schricver for “exccp- 
tionallv meritorious service” as commander of the European office of the Air Research and 
Development Command and l st i t cs ass tant to Schricver in the 1956-1961 period. 
"Early in this period." the citation said, "Gen. Flickinger foresaw the need for manned 
space flight in the immediate future." Gen. Flickinger has become a bioastronautics con- 
sultant in Washington, D. C. 


AVIATION WEEK 


SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 



SONIC VIBRATION PROBLEMS ON 
DC-8 SOLVED BY BLIND BOLTS 



Blind Bolls were finally selected by Douglas DC-8 engineers for 
use in Ihe Sound Suppressors. Exhaustive tests of various blind 
fasteners determined that Blind Bolts in temperature areas could 
best resist overall sound pressure levels reaching 150 decibels! 

In this unusual application, the remarkable ability to the Blind 
Bolt to resist sonic vibrations stems from several of its inherent 
design features... the twin locking technique, combining the oval 
lock of the Expander to grip the thread of the Core Bolt and the 
wedge lock between the Expander and Sleeve end...t/ie hole fill- 
ing ability, resulting from the expansion of the Sleeve shank during 
the installation pull-up of the Expander into the Sleeve end. ..and 
lastly, the excellent fatigue resistance, gained from the high tensile 
preload imposed by the Core Bolt and from the cushioning effect 
of composite fastener materials. 

Because the coefficient of expansion must remain the same to pre- 
vent loss of fastener preload, the computability of structural ma- 
terials at high temperatures is essential. Inside the stainless steel 
Ejector where exhaust gases reach 900°F., A-286 stainless steel 
Blind Bolts are used. On the outside where structural temperatures 
reach 300°F., Type 431 stainless steel Blind Bolts are used. 



From the shop viewpoint, Blind Bolts are installed rapidly and 
quietly. Hole preparation is simple, no reaming is required. Only 
Blind Bolts offer a choice of gun driving tools designed for repairs 
or modifications in difficult or tightly congested structural areas. 
II sonic vibration is your fastener problem... consider Blind Bolts. 
Write for brochure. 



CORPORATION 



The manipulator is released and weight 
determined. Since the cup is full, the 
volume is known. Then silicone oil 
is poured into the cup and volume of 
oil determined. From this, density and 
void can be determined. 

An important function, related to 
roving lunar vehicles, will be the task 
of obtaining and then returning a 
lunar sample to earth. Several concepts 
picture this as an integral part of the 
roving vehicles’ duties. Roving vehicles 
as conceived by General Electric, 
Sperry Rand and North American, for 
example, would contain single rocket 
launchers and single small individual 
rockets capable of sending small pay- 
loads back to earth. 

Space-General has proposed to 
JPL a special lightweight rocket sys- 
tem which could be attached to the 
Surveyor spacecraft and weigh 1 30 lb., 
less than the instrument payload ca- 
pacity of Surveyor. The rocket is de- 
signed to return lunar samples obtained 
for it by the drill rig of Surveyor. 

The entire system would consist of 
a return rocket, fired on command from 
Goldstone, a launcher, apparatus for 
measuring and culling the lunar sam- 
ple and a programmer and telemetry 

The return rocket would be a single- 
stage solid propellant vehicle weighing 
slightly over 60 lb. Its 43-lb. motor 
would boost a 19-lb. re-entry payload 
nose cone to an initial velocity' of 9.000 
fps. Suggested propellant would be 
polyurethane ammonium perchlorate 
containing a small amount of alumi- 
num. The motor would have a mass 
fraction of 0.925 and could produce a 
specific impulse of 296 sec. (at design 
chamber pressure of 300 psia.) with a 
45:1 area ratio bell-shaped nozzle. 

The payload is divided into three 
chambers. One aft facing chamber will 
accept the lunar sample: a second con- 
tains recovery aids such as sea-marker 
aluminum power, shark repellent, flota- 
tion/antenna balloon, and a lighter- 
than-air comer reflector balloon. The 
main chamber will contain power sup- 
ply. S-band tracking and search trans- 
mitters. balloon inflation gas storage 
container and other electronic and elec- 
tromechanical gear. 

The rocket is carried to the moon 
within a launcher attached to Surveyor. 
The launching sequence as well as the 
measuring, transport and loading of the 
sample into the nose cone chamber are 
controlled by a programmer, command 
receiver and telemetry transmitter all 
weighing about 5 lb. and consuming 
about 6 watts. 

Rocket launching will be commanded 
by Goldstone. 

Other interesting features of roving 
lunar vehicles under study by industry 
include: 

• Sperry Rand— The 2,000-lb. roving 


vehicle is designed to evaluate prospec- 
tive Apollo landing sites, to perform 
terrain sampling and analysis and to be 
used by follow-up Apollo crew. It is 
powered by a combination of solar cells 
and batteries, requires 1,200 watts, can 
travel at 2.5 mph., and is guided by 
earth-based operators through TV 
cameras. It would carry a sample drill- 
ing system and would carry an ion 
chamber among its laboratory equip- 

• Aeronutronic— Three vehicles under 
study at Aeronutronic differ basically in 
the manner of intended control. The 
50-lb. crawler, which has calculated life 
of 10 hr. and requires 500 watt-hr. of 
energy, would have self-contained con- 
trol system. A larger, 200-lb. crawler 
could be commanded locally, presum- 
ably from a mother craft, such as a 
Surveyor. Its expected lifetime is 100 
hr. and 10 kilowatt-hr, of energy are 
required. Both of these lightweight 
crawlers are battery operated. The 
largest of the three Aeronutronic vehi- 
cles, a 1,000-lb. craft, would be con- 
trolled from the earth, powered by what 
the company describes as a proprietary 
Ford development, have an expected 
life of 500 hr. and an energy require- 
ment of 1.000 kilowatt-hr. Its range 
would be 1 00 ini. 

• General Electric— This company’s 

rover, or Mobile L laboratory, designed 
as part of a Prospector scheme, will be 


capable of negotiating slopes of 20 deg., 
3-ft. boulders and 6-ft. crevices. It can 
carry several interchangeable payloads. 
Special insulation materials were de- 
vised that will enable it to operate in 
temperature extremes from +150C to 
-150C. 

This is the first portion of a two-part 
article on roving lunar vehicles. The second 
part, dealing with roving lunar vehicle con- 
trol and communications, will appear in 
the next issue of Aviation Week. 

Satellite Propulsion 
Pulse Rocket Tested 

Continuous operation for 46 min. 
has been announced for a 25-lb.-thrust 
radiation-cooled bipropellant pulse 
rocket tested by the Marquardt Corp. 

Applicable to current satellite pro- 
pulsion requirements, this type of 
rocket engine has repeatedly demon- 
strated a space specific impulse of 310 
sec., using a fuel of hydrazine and 
nitrogen tetroxide. Damage to the en- 
gine at the end of the test run was 
negligible, Marquardt says. 

Pulse frequencies up to 100 cycles 
per sec. in engines from 0.2 to 100 lb. 
thrust have been demonstrated with 
effective pulse widths as low as .003 
sec. Combined response and delay 
times of .006 sec. now are available 
and will be reduced to .001. 


PROBLEMATICAL RECREATIONS 86 



How many primes are in the following infinite series where the 
digits are arranged in declining order? 9; 98; 987; 9876; ; 


98765432 1 ; 9876543219; 98765432198; . . . etc. -Contributed 
Of prime importance to our Data Systems Division are systems 
engineers who can integrate developmental sub-systems into a 
smoothly functioning digital tactical data system. Tell us about 
yourself if you're in Chicago at the 17th Annual National Elec- 
tronics Conference, Oct. 9-11, by calling Bob Baker at ANdover 
3-3131. If you don’t plan to attend, write: Mr. Harry Laur. 

answer to last week’s problem: It should take the hands 
hour to come together, not 65 minutes or yj- hour as it actually 
does. Therefore, Dr. Reed's watch runs too fast by a factor of 
( 12/ 1 1 1 3/ 1 1 ) = In one hour it gains 60 [( 144/ 143) - 1] 

or 60/143 minutes. 

An Equal Opportunity Employer 

m LITTON SYSTEMS, INC. 

Data Systems Division 
Canoga Park, California 


AVIATION WEEK and 


TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 



Gamble on Tiros Satellites Is Paying Off 


tronics Division was awarded the con- 
tract to develop the Tiros satellite and 
its instrumentation. 

Very quickly after the launch of 
Tiros I. meteorologists learned from 
the pictures it returned that clouds are 
organized into extremely large-scale 
patterns which sometimes arc more than 
1,000 mi. in diameter. Cloud organi- 
zation had been evident from aircraft, 
rocket and radar observations, but 
before Tiros, it was thought to be true 
only on a small scale. 

Probably the most dramatic contri- 
bution of the Tiros series came Sept. 
10. when Tiros III discovered Hurricane 
Esther before the conventional radars 
or search aircraft spotted the storm. 
Meteorologists estimate that the storm 
was located two days earlier than it 
would have been had not Tiros been 
in orbit. This potentially disastrous 
tropical storm veered away from the 
U. S. coastline Sept. 21-22, but perhaps 
never before has the country been better 
forewarned of a hurricane. 

Tiros III was launched July 12 to 
coincide with the hurricane season, but 
it was not expected to locate storms. 
The objective was research— comparison 
of satellite data with storm information 
from conventional sources so that me- 
teorologists could assess both findings. 

The convincing successes of all three 
Tiros satellites have prompted the 
Weather Bureau to push hard for a 
national weather satellite system, both 
spacecraft and ground stations, which 
could become operational late next year 
with the launch of the second-genera- 
tion Nimbus I satellite. A detailed 
plan for a national meteorological satel- 
lite system has been developed by the 
Panel on Operational Meteorological 
Satellites, calling for an annual expen- 
diture of about Sf.0 million which 
could effectively make long-range 
weather forecasting a more exact sci- 

Mcanwhile, research to refine sys- 
tems. to gain longer operational re- 
liability from electronic components, 
and to provide operational experience 
for meteorologists will continue with 
the Tiros program. Four more Tiros 
satellites will be launched in order to 
keep one weather satellite continuously 
aloft until the Nimbus series gets under 

The Tiros system includes an orbit- 
ing satellite, two ground readout sta- 
tions with a backup station, and a data 
analysis center. Readout stations, op- 
erated by RCA. are located at Wallops 
Island. Va., and Point Mugu, Calif. 
RCA’s Space Center in Princeton, N. J.. 
is the backup station. Data analysis 
center is in Suitland. Md. 

Each of the three Tiros satellites in 


By Edward H. Kolciun 

Washington— Tiros cloud cover satel- 
lite series, started IS months ago as a 
research and development gamble, is 
showing daily during the 1961 hurri- 
cane season the first tangible economic 
return for the U. S. investment in space 

Meteorological scientists did not 
know what the Tiros program would 
bring when the first satellite was 
launched Apr. 1. 1960. Test objectives 
for Tiros I centered around three sci- 
entific questions: 

• Can a satellite transmit high quality 
television pictures to the earth? 

• Would these pictures contain useful 
weather data? 

• Could the pictures be analyzed and 
transmitted to users fast enough to be 
used for operational forecasting? 

After three Tiros launches, all three 
questions have been convincingly ans- 
wered "yes," and a global forecasting 
network has become an immediate 
possibility. 

Meteorologists have long known that 
the higher altitude from which you can 
observe, the more accurate are your 
observations. The weather science pro- 
gressed to satellites through use of 
balloons and rockets mainly to observe 


clouds and large-scale cloud formations, 
because clouds are the signatures of 

Earliest reference to satellites as ob- 
servation platforms for clouds came in 
a Rand Corp. report, written in 1951 
for the Air Force by Stanley M. Green- 
field and William W. Kellogg. Two 
years earlier. USAF Col. (then Maj.) 
D. L. Crowson had proposed use of 
rocket-borne cameras to take cloud 

Dr. Marry Wcxlcr. director of re- 
search for the Weather Bureau, went a 
step further in 1954 by suggesting that 
weather satellites contain television 
cameras, infrared and albedo sensors 
and radar. In 1957. Dr. William K. 
Widger and C. N. Touart of the USAF 
Geophysics Research Directorate de- 
fined the infrared system which led to 
the sensors used in Tiros. Dr. Widger 
has since transferred to the National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration. 

Precise instrumentation for the Tiros 
satellites was decided upon in 1958 by 
a panel of the Advanced Research 
Projects Agency, under the chairman- 
ship of Roger Warner. 

The weather satellite program went 
to NASA when the civilian space or- 
ganization was formed in 195S, and 
Radio Corp. of America’s Astro-Elec- 


FINAL ADJUSTMENTS are made on the Tiros III satellite at the Radio Corp. of 
America Space Center in Princeton, N. J.. shortly before the 285-lb. satellite was launched 
July 12. TTie satellite is covered with 9,260 solar cells and contains two wide-angle cameras. 


AVIATION WEEK 



CLOUD COVER photographs serve weather forecasters by making available accurate data for very large scale analyses. Mosaic of Tiros I 
pictures (bottom) has been superimposed on a weather map (top) showing conditions for the Western U. S. and the Pacific Ocean. This re- 
search map was made of conditions which existed May 20, 1960. 


orbit differs slightly in its instrumenta- 
tion. Major features of the three satel- 
lites are: 

• Tiros I: transmitted 22,952 video pic- 
tures from its launch date Apr. 1. 1960, 
until the end of its useful life on June 
14. 1960 after 1,502 orbits. Approxi- 
mately 14,000 photographs were useful. 
Pictures were taken by identical videcon 
scanner cameras, each with its own mag- 
netic tape storage unit able to store 
32 photographs on each orbit. One 
camera had a wide angle lens with a 
vertical coverage area of 800 sq. mi., and 
the other a narrow angle lens covering 


80 sq. mi. Wide angle lens had a three- 
mile resolution, and the narrow lens, 
0.3 mi. Shutter speed for both cameras 
was 1.5 milliseconds, and the scanner 
"painted” 500 lines per frame. 

The satellite weighed 270 lb., and 
was launched by a Thor Able vehicle 
into an average orbit of 467-429 mi. 
Pictures were transmitted by two 2-watt 
FM transmitters over a 235-mc. fre- 
quency. Nickel cadmium battery pack 
was charged by 9,260 solar cells which 
covered the satellite. 

• Tiros II: photographic subsystem was 
identical to that contained in Tiros I. 


Satellite weighed 282 lb., the additional 
weight coming from an infrared sensor 
system to determine the solar energy 
absorbed and emitted by the earth. 
The IR system has worked well for re- 
search, but the camera system never suc- 
ceeded in transmitting high quality, 
wide angle photographs. 

There are several conflicting theories 
on the malfunction, but the most wide- 
spread has been that exhaust from the 
separation rocket fogged the lens. Pic- 
ture quality improved slightly, leading 
to a belief that the exhaust eroded from 
the lens. Another theory is that the 


AVIATION WEEK and 


TECHNOLOGY. Oc 


sr 2, 1961 




Raytheon “Know-How” Supports M.I.T.’s 
Advanced Polaris Development 


Raytheon is presently devoting part of its unique in- 
dustrial support talents and facilities to system design 
engineering and manufacture of electronics for the 
Advanced Polaris Guidance System. For this program 
Raytheon is under technical direction of Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology's Instrumentation Laboratory. 

For other university or government laboratories, 
major missile, space and weapons systems contractors, 
Raytheon capabilities are ideally suited to basic pro- 
duction design, prototype and production manufac- 


ture, flight and environment testing, and field support 
of operational equipment. 

Reinforcing these capabilities is Raytheon experience 
as prime contractor-systems manager on two major 
missile programs — U. S. Army’s HAWK, U. S. Navy’s 
SPARROW III. Related achievements include 
Raytheon’s famed Weld-Pak® all welded, high density 
analog and digital components, hydraulic actuating 
valves of exacting dimensions, electrical power units of 
extremely favorable power-to-weight ratios, weapons 
systems radomes, missile guidance miniature rate gyros. 

For full information on how Raytheon can lend industrial 
support to your organization’s programs, mail coupon. 


^Raytheon] 

RAYTHEON COMPANY 


AERO/WEAPONS DIVISION 


SEND TODAY FOR BROCHURE 

RAYTHEON COMPANY, Dept. 613A 
Lexington 73, Massachusetts 
Attention: M. B. Curran 
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I I Aero/Weapons Division General Capabilities 
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For the Polaris Advanced Guid- 
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■ Instrument Evaluation 

■ Reliability Tests 

■ Test Equipment Design 

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DIVISION 


camera jarred out of focus at launch. 
This satellite returned 35,834 photo- 
graphs during its lifetime, which began 
Nov. 23. 1960 and ended Sept. 14. 
About 73% of the pictures were useful. 
It was launched by a Delta vehicle. 
• Tiros III: launched July 1 2, and by 
mid-September had returned approxi- 
mately 18,000 useful pictures. With 
the experience of Tiros II, which indi- 
cated that the narrow-angle camera re- 
turns pictures very difficult to orient 
if they cannot be compared with wide- 
angle pictures, the third Tiros has a 
system of two wide-angle cameras, and 
an infrared subsystem. The current 
Tiros contains an improved dark con- 
trast electronic regulator, to provide a 
black level in pictures which is more 
consistent, and an improved focus regu- 
lator for both lenses. Deflectors were 
installed around the lenses to protect 
them from rocket exhaust. The 2S5-lb. 
Tiros III, launched by a Delta vehicle, 
is in an average orbit of 31 1-457 mi. 

It is likely that the narrow-angle 
camera will be omitted from the rest 
of the Tiros satellites, and that two of 
the remaining four satellites in the 
scries will contain infrared subsystems. 

The IR subsystem is one which has 
even more potential for weather fore- 
casting than television pictures, al- 
though IR data now is much harder to 


display and is considered research rather 
than operational information. Prelim- 
inary analysis has indicated that sen- 
sors can determine the net budget- 
gain or loss— of radiation from the 
earth’s atmosphere, and compare un- 
usual radiations with unusual weather 

Tiros III contains three types of in- 
frared radiometers: 

• Scanning, which measures returned 
heat energy by sensors located at an 
angle to the satellite spin axis. 

• Non-scanning, measuring total radia- 
tion in the vicinity of the earth, and 
radiation emitted by the sun. 

• Omni-directional, measuring total 
solar radiation and long- and short- 
wave re-radiation from the earth. 

The detectors are designed to meas- 
ure the earth's albedo-radiant energy— 
and to determine the amount of cloud 
cover at night when the satellite camera 
system cannot be operated. They 
should help measure the temperatures 
of cloud tops, determine cloud depth 
and the surface temperature over cloud- 
free areas. 

Standard Tiros satellite operation 
begins when the payload is separated 
from the third stage of the Delta launch 
vehicle. Third Delta stage is spin sta- 
bilized at 126 rpm. About 10 minutes 
after separation, a timer releases a 



"yo-yo" de-spin system— two weights 
on opposite sites of the payload— which 
slow the spin rate to about 12 rpm. 

To remain stable in orbit. Tiros must 
retain a spin rate of at least 9 rpm. 
When the spin slows below 12 rpm. a 
set of spin rockets is ignited on ground 
command. Tiros III has five pairs of 
spin rockets. Ground stations at Ft. 
Monmouth, N. I- and San Nicholas 
Island program the satellite cameras to 
function through an electronic clock 
mechanism. Operating like an alarm 
clock, the timing system is set when 
the satellite passes over the ground 
stations. The pictures are stored on 
magnetic tape, and when they are played 
back over the ground station, the tape 
is wiped clean. 

Direct Method 

Direct picture taking is used when 
the satellite is within range of Wal- 
lops Island or Point Mugu by operat- 
ing cameras on ground command, skip- 
ping the magnetic tape link. 

At ground stations, cloud cover pic- 
tures are displayed in photograph kine- 
scopes. and both photographic and 
infrared data arc stored on magnetic 
tapes for permanent recording. IR tapes 
arc processed at NASA's Goddard Space 
Flight Center, and negatives of cloud 
cover pictures are sent to the Naval 
Photographic Interpretation Center 
here for developing and processing. 

Meteorological teams are at Wallops 
and Mugu tor immediate analysis for 
operational use. 


Tiros’ Achievements 

Washington— Tiros I photographed a 
storm over the central U. S. the day it 
was launched, and the Tiros series of 
weather satellites has made a number 
of dramatic findings in its 18-month 
lifetime. Among the most significant arc: 

• Tiros I: Photographed a rhombic cloud 
which spawned five tornadoes in Okla- 
homa. and began a photographic cata- 
logue of cloud vortices which may pro- 
types. This satellite also located a severe 
tropical storm in an Air Force refueling 
area near Bermuda, and then spotted a 
clear area so that the refueling opera- 
tions could be conducted safely. 

• Tiros II: Spotted a cold front moving 
toward New Zealand, which promised 
relief from a long heat wave during the 
New Year holiday season. 

• Tiros III: Photographed all tropical 
storms so far during the 1961 hurri- 
cane season, and discovered Hurricane 
Esther. 

Meteorologists hesitate to tank the 
findings in order of significance, since 
photographs arc still under research and 
analysis. 


RCA developed a magnetic coil sys- 
tem, used for the first time on Tiros II. 
to control the attitude of the satellite. 
The satellite base is wrapped with a coil 
of 250 turns of wire, which interact with 
the earth's magnetic field and allow 
the satellite to be tilted on ground com- 
mand. Tiros I was affected by the 
earth's magnetic forces, which caused 
the satellite to tilt gradually away from 
a position vertical to the earth's surface. 

Second-generation Nimbus, which ac- 
tually will be the first operational 
weather satellite system, will use many 
of the procedures and systems being 
proven in Tiros. A major difference is 
that Nimbus will be earth-oriented at 
all times, and will be in a polar orbit. 
Nimbus will weigh about 650 lb. and 
will be launched from Pacific Missile 
Range by a Thor Agena vehicle. 

T1 str c it t systems in Nim- 
bus are being designed for more so- 
phistication than those in the Tiros 
scries. Video camera resolution will be 
finer, and more advanced IR systems 
will be used. First Nimbus wall contain 
a high resolution electrostatic tape cam- 
era which, if successful, will be the 
primary photography unit in subsequent 
Nimbus satellites. 

Aeros' Problems 

Third generation weather satellite is 
the Aeros, a payload which has not yet 
been fully defined. Under current 
plans, this satellite will be launched 
into a synchronous earth orbit, at 22,- 
500 mi. altitude, so that it will cover 
the same portion of the earth at all 
times. Major problems in this system 
will be attitude and orbit correction, 
and a reliable camera system. 

Panel on Operational Meteorological 
Satellites (POMS) has approved a six- 
year plan for an operational system 
which would include participation of 
foreign nations for a truly global net- 
work. Fully operational system would 
begin in 1964 with an annual expen- 
diture of about $60 million, of which 
$48.2 million would be used for four 
spacecraft and four Atlas Agena launch 

Command and data acquisition sta- 
tions. communications nets and arch- 
ives are to be funded in Fiscal 1962 
and 1963 budgets, at a total cost of 
about $27 million. 

Operational system includes a com- 
mand station in Fairbanks, Alaska, 
another on the U. S. Fast Coast, and 
a third in Europe. Wallops Island, or 
a site in Maine, would be used for the 
East Coast station, and a Scandinavian 
site is preferred in Europe. Command 
and data acquisition stations would be 
situated to cover all orbits. 

The POMS report recommends that 
the Weather Bureau be given responsi- 
bility for the meteorological satellite 
system. It concludes that continuous 


worldwide coverage is now within the 
grasp of any nation or group with the 
interest, skill and resources necessary 
to develop weather satellites. 

The U. S. has the ability to under- 
take the system, which could become 
fully operational before 1965, accord- 
ing to the report. Machinery to imple- 
ment the plan would be establishment 
of a separate satellite section within the 
Weather Bureau. Under the plan, 
NASA wall develop satellites to 
Weather Bureau specifications, and 
procure and launch vehicles. 

Flight Schedule 

Flight schedule for the operational 
svstem has been divided into three 
phases: 

• Calendar 1962-63: one Nimbus in 
orbit most of the time, which calls for 
the launch of four Nimbus satellites, 
each with a six-month lifetime, and 
two backup payloads. 

• Calendar 1964-65: one Nimbus sat- 
ellite in orbit all the time, and a second 
in orbit most of the time, with research 
flights beginning on Aeros satellites. 
This would mean six Nimbus and 
three Aeros launches, with two Nimbus 
backup vehicles. 

• Calendar 1966 and beyond: two Nim- 
bus satellites in orbit continuously, 
and an Aeros in orbit part of the time, 
with an annual launch of three Nimbus 
satellites and two Aeros satellites. 

Participating in the panel study, 
which was made under sponsorship of 
the National Coordinating Committee 
for Aviation Meteorology, were repre- 
sentatives of Air Force, Navy, Army, 
Weather Bureau. Federal Aviation Ad- 
ministration and NASA. 

Test Rig Measures 
Ion Propulsion Thrust 

Electrical propulsion measuring sys- 
tem capable of handling small thrust 
measurements of up to 10 lb. has been 
delivered to USAF Aeronautical Sys- 
tems Division at Wright-Patterson 
AFB, Ohio, by Rockctdync Division of 
Nortii American Aviation, Inc, 

The entire machine, weighing about 
5,000 lb., can accommodate an elec- 
trical propulsion engine with dimen- 
sions up to a 3-ft. cube and weighing up 
to 200 lb. Power levels ranging up to 
250 kw. can be tested in the machine 
which will be mounted in a vacuum 
chamber. 

Tests of ion propulsion engines will 
be conducted by suspending the test 
subject from a pendulum. As the en- 
gine’s thrust acts to swing the suspen- 
sion, a counter force will be applied bv 
a magnetic force motor. The current 
necessary to keep the system in balance 
serves to measure the amount of thrust 
of the ion engine. 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


AVIONICS 


Two-Axis Gyroscope Uses Spinning Liquid 


By Philip J. Klass 

Unusual design of two-axis gyroscope 
which uses a spinning liquid instead of 
the conventional spinning metal sphere, 
making the device an extremely sensi- 
tive sensor for angular rate and displace- 
ment, has been developed by Sperry 
Gyroscope Co., Great Neck, N. Y. 

Sperry has built models of the new 
fluid sphere gyro which can measure 
angular rates as low as several hun- 
dredths of a degree per hour and which 
can detect angular displacements as 
small as 0.01 sec. of arc, according to 
W. G. Wing, director of the company's 
inertial systems engineering. 

The use of a spinning liquid not 
only gives the device unusual operating 
characteristics, but also grcatlv simpli- 
fies gyro design and fabrication. As a 
result, Sperry expects that the new SYG- 
2000 gyro will sell for about S2,000 in 
quantity production. 

Company currently is building a pilot 
quantity of the SYG-2000 gyros for 
use in an unidentified military project. 
Continued development of the fluid 
sphere gyro is being sponsored by the 
Air Force Aeronautical Systems Divi- 

Currcnt models of the new gyro meas- 
ure 24 in. in diameter by 64 in. long 
and weigh 5 lb. Random drift is quoted 
at 0.5 deg./hr. and anisoclastic drift 
at 0.003 deg./hr./g’. 

Tlic gyro can be designed to operate 
at any temperature between — 65F and 
200F. and can be stored at temperatures 
over an even wider range. Wann-up 
time is eight minutes maximum from 
any storage temperature, the company 

Drive motor power consumption is 
30 watts. 

Operating Principles 

The high-density, low viscosity fluoro- 
carbon liquid which serves as the gyro 
rotor is set spinning by a motor-driven 
cylindrical member with a spherically 
shaped cavity which is filled with the 
liquid. The spinning spherical cavity 
quickly brings the liquid up to its ro- 
tational speed. In some experimental 
models, spin rates of 12,000 rpm. have 
been used. 

If the gyro case and the spinning 
spherical cavity are displaced through a 
small angle, corresponding to a change 
in attitude of a flight vehicle, the spin- 
ning fluid initially will maintain its orig- 
inal spin axis orientation in space. But 
then fluid shear forces will cause the 
spinning fluid to process into alignment 


with the new attitude of the rotating 
spherical cavity. 

The time constant for this realign- 
ment process depends upon several de- 
sign parameters, some of which can be 
controlled. In present models, the time 
constant can be designed for any value 
from a few milliseconds to about one 
second. Several techniques now under 
investigation may increase the time 
constant, perhaps manyfold, Wing says. 

This coupling between the motor- 
driven cavity and the spinning liquid is 
one of the unusual characteristics of the 
new gyro. For a brief interval, it per- 
forms in the manner of a conventional 
displacement gyro, but lacks the long- 
term spatial stability of a conventional 
gyro. However, when used with external 
integrators, the fluid sphere gyro can be 
used for inertial platform stabilization, 
according to Wing. 

Important Differences 

The coupling is similar to that found 
in conventional spring-restrained rate 
gyros, but with several important differ- 
ences. The new Sperry gvro is extremely 
sensitive to small angular rates about 
two axes and can handle large angular 
rates without the hysteresis effects nor- 


mally encountered in conventional 
spring-restrained rate gyros, according 
to Wing. 

Signal Pickoff 

Like the electrostatic suspension gyro 
and the cryogenic gyro, the fluid sphere 
device cannot employ a conventional 
signal pickoff to measure rotor displace- 
ment since there is no mechanical con- 
nection between it and the external 
environment. 

To sense displacement of the spin- 
ning liquid with respect to the rotating 
cavity. Sperry uses extremely sensitive 
pressure transducers which functionally 
resemble a capacitance type microphone. 
They are excited from an external 50- 
kilocycle source which is inductively 
coupled to the rotating member. 

Four of these pressure sensors are 
located in ports in the rotating cavity. 
Each is situated at an angle of 45 deg. 
with respect to the cavity rotation axis 
and displaced 90 deg. from one another 
around the periphery. 

When the spin axis of the fluid cor- 
responds to the rotation axis of the cav- 
ity, there is a constant pressure on the 
transducers which produces no output 
signal. When the cavity is displaced 



CUTAWAY of early model of new gyroscope shows rotating cavity which causes fluid 
to spin. Sperry two-axis gyroscope uses a spinning liquid instead of conventional spinning 
metal sphere. Use of spinning liquid simplifies gyro design mid fabrication. 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY. 


er 2. 1961 




HUGHES 


ideosonic systems for your Optra- 
ion? Hughes has prepared a special booklet 
'e 'ailing the advantages of Videosonic systems, 
•or your copy, please contact: Manager , Video- 
onic Systems, Hughes Ground Systems Group , 
iuilding 381-1, Fullerton, California. 


New employee's learning time cut 75% ! 

Produciion increased 50% ! 

Rcjecis reduced 55% ! 

Today at Hughes these levels of improve- 

turing. New employees who don’t know 
a transistor from a thimble become skilled 
assemblers in days instead of weeks. They 
start almost immediately to help build 
some of the most complex electronic sys- 

More importantly, they can build them 
right the first time. And they can meet 
tight schedules while keeping costs down. 
The secret is Videosonic* systems, devel- 


with respect to the spinning fluid, a 
pressure oscillation at the fluid spin 
rate occurs across the appropriate pair 
of transducers. The magnitude of the 
a.c. signal is proportional to the ampli- 
tude of displacement and its relative 
phase indicates the direction of displace- 

By using a pair of transducers for 
each sensitive axis, and suitably con- 
necting their output windings, the sen- 
sors are largely unaffected by external 
vibrations of the gyro case which other- 
wise would induce spurious output sig- 

Advantages Cited 

Tire use of a spinning fluid as the 
rotating mass gives the new Sperry 
gyro a number of unusual features and 
potential advantages, according to 
Wing. 

These include the following: 

• Mass balance: One of the basic re- 
quirements for any gyro is that the 
center of mass of its spinning rotor co- 
incide within very close limits to the 
center of support. While this requires 
precision machining and extreme care 
in assembling a conventional gyro, mass 
balance is an inherent characteristic of 
the fluid sphere gyro. If the fluid has 
uniformity density, its center of gravity 
automatically centers on the center of 
support, even when the rotating cavity 
which induces the fluid spin is itself 
considerably out of round. The fluid 
sphere gyro does require modest atten- 
tion to temperature gradients since axial 
temperature gradients will cause a varia- 
tion in density, but this is a relatively 
easy problem to handle, according to 
Wing. 

• Isoelasticity: If a giro is to maintain 
low drift rates in the presence of ex- 
ternal accelerations, it must cither use 
an extremely rigid rotor or one that 
is equally compliant in all directions to 
assure that the center of gravity remains 
aligned with the center of support or 
that any displacement occurs in the 
direction of the acceleration vector so 
as to not produce spurious torques. 
These conditions are met by the in- 
herent characteristics of the fluid sphere 
gyro, according to Wing. The only iso- 
elastic drift results from the compressi- 
bility of the fluid in the cavity. Sperry 
calculations indicate this amounts to 
only 0.003 deg./hr./g’. 

• Reliability: The fluid sphere gyro re- 
quires only about one-half as many 
parts as a conventional sphere gyro, 
Sperry says. Gyro performance is rela- 
tively independent of dirt or other mi- 
cro-contaminations which can cause mal- 
functions and/or short operating life 
in certain types of conventional gyros. 

Because the drive motor is external 
to the spinning fluid mass, any shift 
in the mass of the drive motor windings 
during extended use does not introduce 



NEW FLUID sphere gyroscope, which uses 
tional metal rotor, can be used as an ex- 
gyro. Gyro uses (inly half the number of 
less difficult and less costly to produce. 

any mass unbalance in the spinning 
fluid. Similarly, rugged non-precision 
type bearings can be used for the ro- 
tating cavity element since any changes 
in bearing balance with wear does not 
affect spinning fluid mass balance. 

Under Aeronautical Systems Division 
sponsorship, Sperry is conducting a 
feasibility study of the application of 
the new type gyro to a stabilized plat- 
form, using external integrators. 

Wing is confident that Sperry can 
produce fluid sphere gyros with random 
drift rates of only 0.1 deg./hr./g, or 
about one fifth the drift of early experi- 
mental models. 

Because such a gyro is expected to 
have no mass unbalance error, company 
engineers predict that its performance 
will be equivalent to a conventional 
floated gyro with a random drift rate 
of 0.01 deg./hr. and a mass unbalance 
drift of 0.1 deg./hr./g when applied to 
high-altitude, high-thrust flight regimes, 
such as that of the North American 
Aviation X-15 rocket research plane. 



SCHEMATIC shows the capacitancc-type 

sure that occurs when gyro is displaced 
with respect to spinning fluid sphere. 




A SERGEANT MISSILE HAS JUST BEEN LAUNCHED! 


Look again, there’s not a speck in the 
sky . . . and yet all day long training 
crews have been “launching” one 
Sergeant after another. The 
Sergeant handling and checkout 
trainer, developed and now being 
produced by AAI, allows missile 
crews to assemble . . . erect . . . check 
out . . . monitor . . . count down and 
“fire” without a missile ever leaving 
the ground. This is another 
achievement by America’s most 
experienced designer and 
manufacturer of training, test and 
simulation systems. 

AIRCRAFT ARMAMENTS, INC. 

COCKEYSVILLE, MARYLAND 


Sergeant, Redstone, Atlas, Polaris, Nike, Sparrow, Titan, and Terrier Missiles 



Acoustic Amplifier 
Has Wide Application 

Fundamentally new type of semi- 
conductor device, called a traveling 
wave acoustic amplifier, which may be 
the first of a whole family of new de- 
vices capable of operating at high fre- 
quencies, has been discovered by scien- 
tists at Bell Telephone Laboratories. 

The newly discovered principle in- 
volves the amplification of ultrasonic 
waves in a piezo-electric semiconductor 
crystal through the interaction of the 
sound waves with electrons drifting in 
the crystal. 

Results of experiments to date sug- 
gest that the new principle can be used 
in a variety of devices, including a 
traveling wave amplifier, oscillator, iso- 
lator. and a delay line which enhances 
the signal rather than attenuating it. 

Using a crystal of cadmium sulfide 
measuring seven millimeters in length. 
BTL scientists report that they have 
achieved gains of 38 db. for a 45-mc. 
signal and gains of 18 db. with a 15- 
mc. signal. 

The new principle, first proposed bv 
BTL's Dr. D. L. White, is an out- 
growth of the discovery last year of 
the piezo-electric properties of certain 
types of semiconductors, such as cad- 
mium sulfide and zinc oxide. Subse- 
quent experiments revealed that ultra- 
sonic waves are attenuated in such 
crystals when they are exposed to light. 

More recent experiments showed 
that amplification can be obtained if a 
cadmium sulfide crystal is exposed to 
light and a direct current electric field 
is applied to the crystal in the direc- 
tion in which ultrasonic waves are 
propagating through the crystal. 

The amount of amplification ob- 
tained depends upon the magnitude of 
the applied voltage which produces the 
d.c. field and the conductivity of the 
semiconductor crystal, which in turn 
depends upon the intensity of the illu- 

The explanation for the phenom- 
enon advanced by BTL scientists is as 
follows: When a sound wave travels 
through a piezo-electric material, it 
produces a longitudinal electric field 
which travels along with the wave. If 
the material also is conductive, this 
electric field causes currents to flow 
in the material. 

Because the piezo-electric field is 
periodic, the electrons will bunch to- 
gether in parts of the ultrasonic wave, 
interacting with the piezo-electric field. 
Tliis in turn reacts on the material 
itself, causing a corresponding change 
in the velocity and amplitude of the 
sound wave traveling through the 
material. 

If a d.c. electric field is impressed 
on the material so as to cause the 


AVIATION WEEK 


ad SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


Collins Offers PERT 

PERT (Program Evaluation Review 
Technique) scheduling and control pro- 
gram for an IBM 7070 computer, de- 
veloped by Collins Radio Co. for its own 
use. is being offered free of charge to 
other potential users. The PERT pro- 
gram package includes a description of 
the computer program, a program deck, 
flow charts, logic diagrams and a descrip- 
tion of system operation. The package 
can be obtained by writing to Charles 
K. Titus. Collins Radio Co.. Communi- 
cation and Data Systems Division. Cedar 
Rapids, Iowa. Company reports that it 
is now applying PERT management 
technique to nearly 70 military and 


bunched carriers to drift in the direc- 
tion of the wave propagation at super- 
sonic speed, the ultrasonic waves will 
be amplified in much the same way 
that electromagnetic waves are ampli- 
fied in a traveling wave tube. Dr. White 
theorized. 

In recent experiments which con- 
firmed this theory, BTL scientists used 
a cadmium sulfide crystal which had 
quartz transducers attached at opposite 

One served to convert a radio fre- 
quency input pulse into an equiva- 
lent sound wave in the crystal, while 
the other converted the received wave 
into an equivalent electrical output sig- 

The experiments showed that when 
a d. c. field is impressed on the cad- 
mium sulfide crystal which is dark (un- 
illuminatcd), there is no effect on the 
signal passing through the crystal. If 
the crystal is illuminated but no elec- 
tric field is applied, the conductivity 
increases and the sound wave is attenu- 

But when the crystal is illuminated 
and a sufficient voltage is applied 
to it, substantial signal amplification 
occurs. 

To provide an unequivocal con- 
firmation of the existence of net acous- 
tic gain in the crystal, BTL scientists 
conducted a test in which no signal was 
applied but the crystal was illuminated 
and subjected to a d. c. electric field. 
In time, thermal noise within the crys- 
tal material built up acoustic energy, 
producing ultrasonic waves. The ampli- 
fication was more than sufficient to com- 
pensate for losses due to reflection at 
the crystal-transducer bonds, causing 
the crystal to break into oscillation. 
This suggests that the new principle 
can be applied to oscillators as well as 
to amplifying devices. 

Theory suggests that the new travel- 
ing wave acoustic amplifier may be able 
to operate at frequencies in the giga- 
cycle (kilo-megacycle) region, but this 


has not yet been proven by experiment, 
a BTL spokesman says. 

Present plans call for a study of the 
noise characteristics of the new device 
which is expected to have a noise figure 
comparable to tunnel diodes. It is ex- 
pected that cooling of the crystal will 
lower its noise figure, within limits. 

There is a variety of possible piezo- 
electric semiconductor materials which 
might be used. Generally these arc the 
class 2-6 and 3-5 compounds. Cadmium 
sulfide and zinc oxide are representa- 
tive of the first type, while gallium 
arsenide and indium antimonidc are 
typical of the second class. 



► New Role for Electric Typewriter?— 
Rome Air Development Center scien- 
tists arc considering a new role for the 
familiar electric typewriter: as an indi- 
vidual office output/input device for 
military communications systems. Ma- 
jor problem at present is that a hard- 
copy message can be transmitted half 
wav around the world in a few seconds, 
but once it arrives at the major mili- 
tary facility there is no speedy way to 
deliver it to the individual for whom 
it is intended. Since most military of- 
fices already have electric typewriters, 
RADC is considering them as hard-copy 
output/input devices. A buffer storage 
element would have to be added to 
temporarily hold messages until the ma- 
chine was available, but this could be 
a modest sized and priced device. 

► Radar Hazard Being Surveyed-New 
York University, under RADC spon- 
sorship, is conducting a survey with the 
cooperation of 25 companies that make 
or test radar and high-power microwave 
equipment. Objective is to gather sta- 
tistics to evaluate hazard, particularly 
to human eyes, of working near radar 
equipment. Survey will include both 
employes exposed to radar and those 
in unexposed office or factory jobs to 
ascertain if the former have a higher 
incidence of eye degradation. 

► Soviets Report New Photo-Emission 
Phenomenon— Russian scientists report 
that the maximum energy of photoelec- 
trons emitted from N-type crystal blocks 
of gallium arsenide is independent of 
the energy' of incident light quanta over 
the interval of 4.66 to 5.46 electron- 
volts. a phenomenon which has not 
previously been observed. 

► Soviets Develop Pneumatic Compu- 
ter-Miniature pneumatic computer, 
capable of perfonning simple arithmetic 
operations and solving integral and dif- 
ferential equations, has been developed 
in the Soviet Union. The computer 


ideas you can use front 



1000°Fand pressures up lo 20,000 p.s.i. 
The BFG seal utilizes a blunt knife 
edge with a controllable unit load and 



division of Tlu B.F. Goodrich Company, 
Dept. AH -IO-I - Akron, Ohio. 


AVIATION WEEK 


SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 




SAFETY 

OFLIFE INTHE AIR 

SELENIA AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL RADAR OFFERS: 


SOLID LONG RANGE. HIGH ALTITUDE DETECTION 
OF EVEN THE SMALLEST TYPES OF AIRCRAFT 
THROUGH THE USE OF HIGH AVERAGE POWER 
AND A PARAMETRIC AMPLIFIER RECEIVER. 

THE MOST ADVANCED TRUE MTI SYSTEM 

IN THE WORLD WITH THREE PULSE CANCELLATION 

FOR CLUTTER-FREE PRESENTATION 

AND STAGGERED REPETITION RATE FOR 

BLIND SPEEDS ELIMINATION. 

THE USE OF L-BAND ASSURES 

SHARP AZIMUTH DISCRIMINATION AND 

LOW PRECIPITATION ATTENUATION 

WITH REASONABLY SIZED ANTENNA STRUCTURES. 

SPECIAL HIGH-LOBE ANTENNA 

FOR GREATLY IMPROVED SUBCLUTTER 

VISIBILITY FOR CLOSE-IN TARGETS AND 

CIRCULAR POLARIZATION FOR NEARLY 

COMPLETE CANCELLATION 

OF RETURNS FROM PRECIPITATION. 

A RADAR COMPLETELY COMPATIBLE WITH 
IET AGE REQUIREMENTS. 

A DIRECT SUCCESSOR OF THE PROVEN RAYTHEON 
AIRPORT AND AIRWAYS RADARS CHOSEN BY 
THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL AUTHORITIES IN 
CANADA, THE UNITED STATES AND SWITZERLAND. 




ROME ITALY 
P.O.BOX 7083 


consists of metallic washers with dia- 
phragms made of rubberized linen 
which form miniature chambers to re- 
ceive in-flow of compressed air. Opera- 
tion of the device is controlled by stop- 
cocks in the tubes which earn' the 
compressed air. Computer is described 
in USSR publication Ekonomichcskaya 
Gazeta, Aug. 7, 1961. 

► Call for Papers— Air Force Cambridge 
Research Laboratories will hold a sym- 
posium on "The Plasma Sheath— Its Ef- 
fect Upon Re-entry Communication 
and Detection” Apr. 10-12 in Boston. 
Both classified and unclassified techni- 
cal sessions will be held. Prospective 
authors should submit 200-word unclas- 
sified abstracts by Oct. 1 5 to Miss Alice 
Cahill. Code CRRD, AFCRL, L. G. 
Hanscom Field. Bedford, Mass. 

► ONR Schedules Two Symposia— 
Symposium on optical character recog- 
nition, sponsored bv the Office of 
Naval Research, will beheld Jan. 15-17, 
and another on redundancy techniques 
for computing systems will be held 
Feb. 6-7. Both will be given in the De- 
partment of Interior auditorium in 
Washington D. C. Further details are 
available by writing: Miss Josephine 
Lcno, Code 430A, Office of Naval Re- 
search, Washington 25, D. C. 

► Signed on the Dotted Line— Major 
contract awards recently announced by 
avionics manufacturers include the fol- 

• General Atronics Corp., Bala-Cynwyd, 
Pa., will conduct one-vear theoretical 
and experimental program to establish 
feasibility of new technique for detec- 
tion of 1CBM nose cones and space 
vehicles under a 5500,786 contract from 
Air Force Ballistic Systems Division. 
Technique is expected to provide infor- 
mation on target velocity, acceleration, 
rotation and geometric form factor from 
each radar pulse in addition to its range 
and position, company says. 

• Hallicraftcrs Co., Chicago, 55 mil- 
lion for airborne electronic warfare 
penetration systems for use on Strategic 
Air Command bombers, from USAF 
Aeronautical Systems Division. 

• Melpar, Falls Church. Va., $76,600 
award from Aeronautical Systems Divi- 
sion for continued investigation of elec- 
tronic neurons for application to flight 
control and other systems suitable for 
satellite controls. 

• Sperry Gyroscope Co., Great Neck. 
N. Y., S5.4-million Air Force contract 
for engineering installation and on-site 
testing of high-power frequency diver- 

• Electro Mechanical Research, Inc., 
Sarasota, Fla., $80,000 for a pulse dura- 
tion modulation-to-digital conversion 
system, from USAF Air Proving 
Ground Center. 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


NEW AVIONIC 
PRODUCTS 


• Precision wirewound resistors, in 
values from 1 ohm to 75 megohms with 
tolerances from 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1% 
in welded, encapsulated units. Watt- 
age ratings are specified at 125C, 
derated lineally to zero power at 1 80C. 



Standard temperature coefficient is 10 
ppm. with 1 ppm. to 6.000 ppm. avail- 
able on request. Resistors meet MIL-R- 
95B and MIL-R-9444. Manufacturer: 
GB Components. Inc., 14621 Arminta 
St.. Van Nuvs, Calif. 

• Circulator, Model CXB-205, a four- 
port waveguide circulator developed for 
communication link applications, will 
handle 500 watts average and operate 



over temperature range from — 55C to 
7 1C. It can be used in frequency range 
from 5.925 to 6.425 kmc. and provides 
20 db. minimum isolation, insertion 
loss less than 0.25 db., vswr of 1.15 
max. Manufacturer: Rantec Corp., 
Calabasas, Calif. 

• Magnetic tape recorder, Model 2101, 
records 14 tracks with laboratory pre- 
cision in missile environments and 
weighs 15 lb. This airborne recorder 
consists of precision tape transport and 
electronic module assembly. Plug-in 
modules provide choice between 14 
tracks of wideband FM recording and 
combination of seven tracks I'M and 
seven tracks of direct analog recording. 


Frequency response is d.c. to 10 kc. in 
wideband FM and 50 to 100,000 cps. 
in direct record at tape speed of 50 
ips. Tape packing density is 3,500 cps. 
Manufacturer: Westrex Recording 

Equipment Division, Litton Industries. 
335 No. Maple Dr., Beverly Hills, Calif. 

• Ferrite isolators, Models J103, X103 
and XL102 for use at J-band (5.85 to 
8.2 kmc.), X„ band (8.2 to 12.4 kmc.) 
and X, band (7.05 to 10 kmc.), are 
transverse field, resonance absorption 
devices designed to maximize load isola- 
tion, maintain low insertion loss and 
hold vswr to low level. These isolators 
exhibit typical performance characteris- 
tics of 30 db. min. isolation, 1 db. 
insertion loss and 1.15 max. vswr over 
specified operating frequency band. 
Manufacturer: Motorola, Inc., Solid 
State Electronics Dept., 3102 No. 56th 
St., Scottsdale, Ariz. 

• Traveling wave tube. Model 7.-3031, 
a low-noise K„ amplifier with saturated 
power output of 5 milliwatts and noise 
figure of less than 14 db. across its fre- 
quency range of 14 to 18 kmc. Gain of 
tube is at least 25 db. Supplied as com- 



plete package including permanent 
magnet focusing assembly, waveguide 
input and output connectors, entire 
tube weighs 1 1.5 lb. It is intended for 
use in ECM gear, microwave relay sys- 
tems and as preamplifier in radar re- 
ceivers. Manufacturer: General Electric 
Co. Power Tube Dept., Schenectady 5, 
N.Y. 

• Universal battery charger, Model 
EDC 2-271, supplies constant current 
adjustable from 0.1 to 10 amp. to any 
type of sealed or unsealed battery (up 



to 50 volts). Transistorized battery 
charger automatically shuts off when 
batters' reaches full charge. It also has 
automatic cycling mode. Manufacturer: 
Electro Development Corp., 4530 
Union Bay PL, N.E., Seattle 5, Wash. 



AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 




PRODUCTION BRIEFING 



space age suppoi 


These high-performance sounding vehicles are only 
examples of Rocket Power’s solid propellant accom- 
plishments . . . ranging from a variety of standard 
solid propellant rocket motors to second-generation 
propellant R & D projects. 

RPI's technical abilities, depth of experience and 
advanced production and loading facilities combine 
to provide a complete rocket and solid propellant 
capability. If your project requires rocket vehicles, 
rockets, propellant-actuated devices or gas generating 
cartridges, call RPI, today. 


COMPLETE INFORMATION on RPI 
e tor Technical Bulletin #1200. 


FALCON FIELD/MESA. ARIZONA 



Japanese government has approved a 
request from Mitsui & Co. to manufac- 
ture Fuji Bell 204B 12-passenger heli- 
copters under license front Bell Helicop- 
ter Co. Agreement calls for production 
by Fuji Heavy Industry of 100 units by 
the end of 1968, of which 40 helicop- 
ters would be delivered to the Japanese 
Self-Defense Agency and the remain- 
ing 60 units would be available to pri- 
vate industry and for export. Mass 
production is scheduled to begin toward 
the end of next year. 

Bell Aerosystems Co. will measure 
control responses and accelerations of 
its one-man rocket belt (AW June 12. 
p. 33) under a contract from Aerospace 
Medical Laboratory. Air Force Systems 
Command. Data from these stability, 
performance and control studies will be 
applied to follow-on rocket belt designs. 

Dow Corning Coq>. of Midland, 
Mich., is producing and marketing a 
new family of heat, cold and oxidation 
resistant materials called fluorosilicones 
that are insoluble in most solvents and 
incompatible with most petroleum oils. 
Produced in fluid, compound and grease 
forms, the materials behave similarly to 
dimethyl silicones, but also have good 
solvent, fuel and chemical resistance 
and improved lubricity. 


Air Force has awarded a contract to 
Republic Aviation Corp. for research 
slated toward improving structural de- 
sign requirements for aerospace vehicles. 
The contract also calls for investigation 
of internal components such as piping, 
electrical harnesses and equipment sup- 
ports. The study will cover the period 
from the vehicle’s exit from the earth’s 
atmosphere through space operation and 
atmospheric re-entry'. 

Martin Co.’s Baltimore Division 
has signed a 5310,000 contract with Na- 
tional Aeronautics and Space Adminis- 
tration to build approximately 50 heat 
exchanger units for Saturn C-i boosters. 

Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc.’s Temco 
Aerosystems Division has received a 
SI. 5-million contract for recondition- 
ing and modification of Air Force 
Douglas C-133 transports. Major modi- 
fication called for is preparation of air- 
craft to receive a new type propeller 
and subsequent installation of the pro- 
pellers. 

Hayes Corp., Birmingham, Ala., has 
received a S2.21 5,869 Air Force contract 
for production of multi-purpose pylon 
assemblies for F-100 aircraft. 


82 


AVIATION WEEK jnd SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


BUSINESS FLYING 



HARTZELL PUSHER PROP, fully reversible to aid in docking the Italian-built amphibian, can also be used while maneuvering the four- 
placer on the ground. Riviera, as the SIAl-Marchctti F.N.333 is designated by U. S. distributor Lane Aircraft, is priced at S34.950, 
minus radio. Tip floats fair neatly into Riviera’s fully cantilevered wings, reducing drag to provide about 150 mph. cruise speed. 


Riviera Amphibian to Be Marketed in U.S. 


By Erwin J. Bulban 

Dallas, Tex.— First four-place Lane 
Riviera single-engine amphibian, de- 
signed and built by Savoia Marchetti in 
Italy, will soon start an extensive dem- 
onstration tour in the U. S. to indoc- 
trinate potential customers and dealers 
in the new Dallas company’s marketing 
program. 

The airplane, the fifth prototype 
F.N. 333, recently arrived at Lose Field 
here from New York and made its pub- 
lic debut at the National Business Air- 
craft Assn.’s annual forum at Tulsa, 
Okla., Sept. 26-28. It was then sched- 
uled to be shown at National Pilot 
Assn.’s annual meeting at Tulsa follow- 
ing the NBAA show. Then Lane Air- 
craft Co. Executive Vice President Jerry 
Spear plans to take it to Aircraft Own- 
ers & Pilots Assn, convention, St. 
Petersburg. Fla.. Oct. 9-15, prior to a 
swing to the Pacific northwest the latter 
part of October. There he will make it 
available for demonstration by a Lane 
dealer in Seattle, who reportedly has 
several firm prospects. Spear will then 
fly the amphibian to Santa Monica, 
Calif., for showing to a prospective 

Lane Aircraft, which is sole distribu- 
tor in this country for the airplane, feels 
that its best dealer prospects arc among 
those outlets which have specialized in 
multi-engine business aircraft and that 


wish to add a new single-engine plane 
to their line to bolster their marketing 
programs. 

Spear explained to Aviation Week 
that his company has laid out these 
guidelines for prospective dealers— they 
must have available adequate serv- 
ice facilities and maintain a stock of 
approximately $3,500 in spares that arc 
not available in the U. S. and they must 
provide an instructor qualified in sea- 
plane operations, because the company 
will insist on providing customers with 
complete checkout in the aircraft and 
its systems, including haring the cus- 
tomer pilot make approximately 50 
water takeoffs and landings. 

Lane itself will stock approximately 
30% of the dollar value of spares needs 
based on the outcome of its demonstra- 
tion programs. The company, headed 
by David T. Lane, has offices in the 
Exchange Bank Building, Dallas, and 
operates from nearby Love Field. 
Certification Received 

Spear reported that the Riviera am- 
phibian has a full Federal Aviation 
Agency certificate. The Italian manu- 
facturer is now tooling for production, 
with some delays having been experi- 
enced in procurement of specialized 
machine tools, but the outlook is that 
the first two production models will be 
completed next January. 

Build-up would probably be four air- 


craft in March, a six per month rate 
in April and eight per month by the 
end of 1962. 

Retail price of the basic Riviera am- 
phibian will be 534,950 minus radio, 
which will be optional depending on 
customer’s choice. Radio installations 
will be made either by the distributor, 
Lane Aircraft, at Associated Radio, Love 
Field, or by the dealer, to customer 
specifications. The basic price will in- 
clude a full instrument flight rules 
(IFR) panel, with dual gyros and vac- 
uum pumps, dual controls, ground serv- 
ice plug for battery cart starts to save 
drain on the battery, full-reverse pitch 
Hartzell propeller, a hydraulically oper- 
ated water rudder, four-color paint 
scheme, corrosion proofing throughout 
to U. S. Navy specifications and stain- 
less steel cables. 

Inspection of the demonstrator here 
at Love Field indicated that the Riviera 
is a ruggedly built airplane, probably 
designed on the heavy side compared 
with U. S. practice. Spear noted that 
production airplanes will have a lighter- 
weight wing than the prototypes, pro- 
viding a saving of approximately 170 
lb. Another 30-50 lb. will be pared in 
refining the airplane for production. 

The production Riviera will have a 
gross weight of 3,270 lb., the same as 
the demonstrator prototype, and useful 
load will be 1,045 lb.— sufficient to han- 
dle four people with full gas coinple- 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 




merit, including auxiliary tankage, of 65 
gal. Production plane, with complete 
Tl 'R panel, will have a maximum range 
of <350 mi. with no reserve, Spear stated. 
Me said the airplane will cruise at ap- 
proximates 145-150 mph. indicated air- 
speed, which the company feels is a 
requirement if it is to be competitive 
with its landplane contemporaries. 
Powcrplant is a pusher-mounted Con- 
tinental fuel-injection IO-470-P of 250 
hp., which replaces the earlier 240-lip. 
Continental. 

All-weather capabilities should be en- 
hanced by the Riviera being designed to 
take up to 45 fps. gust loads at 149 
mph. indicated, which is a condition 
of heavy turbulence. 

The hull is stressed to take 7.2g land- 
ing loads. 

With the high wing mounted behind 
the large windows and node entrance 
doors on both sides, the Riviera features 
easy access to the cabin’s rear and front 
paired scats, with the backs of the front 
scats folding down to further facilitate 

The panel layout is designed for 
ease of maintenance, a simple piano- 
type hinge splitting the panel top in 
half. Removing a pin opens up the 
entire top of the turtle-deck for check- 
ing behind the panel. Instrument re- 
moval is facilitated by quick-opening 
fasteners that pemiit the board to be 
pulled out. 

Propeller reverse lever is located be- 
tween the front seats overhead on the 
windshield divider strip. Pulling the 
lever and pushing the throttle in not 
only cuts braking time and aids in 
docking the amphibian, but comes in 
handy when positioning the airplane on 
land. 

Spear said he had used the fea- 
ture for backing up on the ground. 

Water rudder is retracted or extended 
using a button mounted on the wheel. 
One modification Lane insisted on is 
removal of the landing light from a vul- 
nerable position in the bow to the 
wings. The present window-mounted 
air vents will be replaced by conven- 
tional U. S. type indirect cabin vents. 

Turbo-Flight to Sell 
Potez 840 in America 

Henri Potez and Turbo-Flight, Inc., 
I of Chicago have signed a sales agree- 
ment whereby Turbo-Flight becomes 
the exclusive North American sales 
I agent for the Potez P.840 turbine-pow- 
I cred, four-engine light transport aircraft. 

Turbo-Flight has ordered a demon- 
strator aircraft to be delivered .in April. 
1962, and has taken an option on all 
24 Potez 840s scheduled to be pro- 
duced in 1962 (AW May 29, p. 71). 
The company also will be parts and 
1 service representative for North 


MODICON* IV is the only in-being 
modular dispersed air defense 
system for the command and control 
of mixed weapons 


m LITTON SYSTEMS, INC. 

DATA SYSTEMS DIVISION 

CAN06A PARK, CALIFORNIA 
COMMAND AND CONTROL SYSTEMS: AIR DEFENSE, SPADE VEHICLES, AIR TRAFFIC 


AVIATION 


SPACE TECHNOLOGY, Oc 


sr 2, 1961 


America and is negotiating with 1 1 
fixed-base operators in the United 
States, Canada and Mexico. 

The fixed-base operators will provide 
regional service facilities if agreements 
are reached. Turbo-Flight will main- 
tain a spare parts depot in Chicago. 

Sales of the P.840 will be handled 
through independent sales associates 
who will work on a direct commission 
basis, assisted by a Turbo-Flight 
demonstration team. Continental 
Motors will provide service and parts 
distribution for the aircraft’s Tur- 
homeca Astazou engines. 

Don Payton, Turbo-Flight president, 
said the firm was formed to bring a 
European aircraft of the P.S40 class 
on flic U.S. market. Chief stock- 
holder in the company is Daniel 
Peterkin. president of Morton Salt Co. 

The Potez P.840, a 16-24 scat air- 
craft designed for feeder-line and execu- 
tive use, lias been a privately financed 
venture so far. Recently. Potez has 
been considering an offer by the Irish 
government to produce the P.840 in 
Ireland. 

Speculation in France now is that 
the French government will advance 
production aid to keep the work in 
France. The French military services are 
reported considering the P.840 as a re- 
placement for its DC-5 transport fleet. 
If the aircraft is selected, the military 
might order as many as 30 aircraft. 
Turbo-Flight says deliveries can be 
made 18 months after a finn order is 
placed. 

PRIVATE LINES 


Piaggio Douglas PB-808 utility turbo- 
jet transport will be powered by two 
Bristol Siddelev Viper 20 engines of 

3.000 lb. thrust each. First flight of a 
prototype PB-808 is expected in 1962. 
The Viper 20 powerplants will enable 
the PB-808 to cruise at 40,000 ft. at 
500 mph. 

First Super EQM Catalina has been 
delivered to Sclco Exploration Co., 
Ltd., by Timmins Aviation, Ltd., of 
Montreal. The Catalina conversion, be- 
ing offered by Timmins in several con- 
figurations including high-density pas- 
senger, cargo, and executive models, 
will cruise at 5,000 ft. at 192 mph. 
with 55% of power. Gross weight is 

32.000 lb. A tanker version is under 
development for use in fighting forest 


Cessna has changed its international 
sales meeting from Oet. 15-17 to Oct. 
22-24 because of restrictions which will 
be imposed on air travel Oct. 14 by 
operation Skyshicld, a military exercise 
during which all civilian aircraft move- 
ments will be banned. 


No major changes have been incor- 
porated in the Piper Colt or Comanche 
ISO for 1962. Both aircraft feature new 
paint schemes which basically are a 
white fuselage, wings and tail with a 
choice of four to six trim colors. Com- 
anche 180 has a newly designed cabin 
interior and a "ruggedized” Lycoming 
engine. Prices on the two 1962 models 
have not yet been announced bv the 

Beech Aircraft Corp. has been test- 
ing Stratographic horizon indicator de- 
veloped by Coifing Industries, Inc., 
Covington, Ind. The instrument pre- 
sents indicator aircraft figure superim- 
posed on converging grid lines, giving 
the appearance of earth’s surface dis- 
appearing into distance. Grid lines are 
at specific degrees of separation to per- 
mit accurate banks to be established, 
Coffing says. 

Canadian Department of Transport 
has taken delivers' of a Sikorsky S-62 
helicopter. The aircraft will be used for 
resupply and inspection work on Can- 
ada's west coast. 

Modification of a Beech T-34B to 
260 hp. in place of standard 225-lip. 
Continental engine has been developed 
for U. S. Forest Service by Pacific Air- 
motive Corp., Burbank, Calif., to im- 
prove the plane's performance in fire 
fighting operations. T-34B is used by 
Forest Service as a lead plane to direct 
activities of aerial tankers, requiring 
slow flying over rugged terrain. Con- 
ventional powcrplant lacked power and 
cooling necessary for unusual opera- 
tions under inherently poor flying con- 
ditions in extremely high-temperature 


Acquisition of General Aviation Sup- 
ply Co., St. Louis, Mo., by Van Duscn 
Aircraft Supplies, Tctcrboro, N. ex- 
tends the latter company's operations 
to 14 major cities. Addition will be 
known as the company’s Gasco Divi- 
sion at present. 

Fourth de Havilland Heron has been 
added to Queen Elizabeth II’s personal 
transport section of the British Royal 
Air Force. Three previous Herons have 
flown more than one million miles with 
members of the royal family and dis- 
tinguished guests. 

Federal Aviation Agency has approved 
wingtip tanks for the 1961 Piper 
Comanche 250. Tanks increase usable 
fuel capacity to 90 gal., or to 120 gal. if 
the airplane is equipped with Piper's 
optional wing tanks. Tanks are manu- 
factured by Brittain Industries, Inc., 
Hawthorne, Calif., and weigh a total of 
24 lb. per pair. 




FOR EVERY 


APPLICATION WHERE 
ACTION OCCURS AS A 
FUNCTION OF TIME 

« Constant Speed Motors 
±5% ungoverned ± 1% governed 

* Modular gear train covers wide 
timing range. Weight 9 oz. 

* Wide selection of switches, reset 
clutches, variable inductors and 

■* Inquire about programming of 
circuits rated as high as 40 amps. 




Contact Bendix-Pacific 
when your design requires— 
ACTUATORS 

Geneva- Loc • Conventional Rotary 
Linear • High-Response • 


Repeat Cycle • Adjustable 


Bendix-Pacific Division 



AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 






Do you share his reluctance to accept the accepted? 



Doubt is his dogma. He questions everything, takes nothing for granted — not even his own answers. 

Do you share his stubborn skepticism ? Then come to Northrop, where the breadth and variety of projects give ample 
scope to the most determined questioner. Northrop's divisional organization makes it possible to support a broad range 
of programs from countermeasures systems and airborne computer design to techniques for aero-space deceleration 
and re-entry, and the maintenance of a total human environment in space. 

Top priority, just now, goes to senior aerodynamicists and computer circuit designers. But whatever your specializa- 
tion, if you’re the kind of man Northrop needs, there'll always be an opening ab 
for you. Why not get m touch with us today and find out more? Just write J ( If gf 

to Northrop Corporation, Post Office Box No. 1525, Beverly Hills, California. an eoual opportunity employer 


SAFETY 


CAB Accident Investigation Report: 

Approach Planning Cited in Electra Crash 


At approximately 0800 EST, Sept. 14, 
1960, a Lockheed Electra, Model L-1SSA. 
N 6127A, owned and operated by American 
Airlines, Inc., struck a dike and crashed 
during an approach to a landing at La- 
Guardia Airport, New York, N.Y. Approxi- 
mately half of the 76 persons on hoard suf- 
fered minor injuries or shock; no one was 
killed. The aircraft was severely damaged by 
impact forces and fire. 

The Electra scheduled as Flight 361 de- 
parted Boston at 07 1 6 EST, with its destina- 
tion St. Louis, Mo., and with a planned 
intermediate stop at LaGuardia Airport. 
About 10 min. prior to departure a crew 
change was made when a check pilot boarded 
the aircraft to flight-check the flight engi- 
neer. This check pilot, by mutual agreement 
with the crew and in accordance with exist- 
ing company policy, took over the left or 
pilot-in-command seat with the previously 
assigned captain moving to the jump scat. 

The trip was routine until final approach 
at LaCuardia. 

It is the Board s opinion that the pilot, 
in attempting to land as short as possible, 
did not properly plan the approach and as 
a consequence misjudged the height of the 
aircraft above the ground when crossing the 

As a result of this investigation and hear- 
ing, tw-o recommendations were sent to the 
Federal Aviation Agencv. 

1. On Sept. 22, 1960, it was recom- 
mended that the “Visual Glide Slope Sys- 
tem.” then undergoing tests by the FAA, 
be applied to LaGuardia Airport as soon as 
practicable. 

2. On Dec. 13, 1960, it was recom- 
mended in a letter to the Administrator 
that the present procedures for providing 
illumination of passenger exit markings be 
re-examined. 

Other factors of this investigation are be- 
ing studied, one of which is the evacuation 
of an aircraft when upside down. 

Investigation 

American Airlines Flight 361 of Sept. 14, 
1960, a Lockheed Electra L-188A, N 6127A, 
was a scheduled passenger flight between 
Boston, Mass., and St. Louis, Mo., with an 
intermediate stop at LaGuardia Airport, New 
York. N.Y. The crew consisted of Captain 
Gordon E. Staples, First Officer Herbert E. 
Schleicher, Flight Engineer Kenneth F. 
Thoman, and Stewardesses Margaret Flem- 
ing and Donna Gilligan. 

Prior to departure the crew was briefed on 
the available terminal and en route weather 
conditions as well as pertinent forecasts. The 
local Boston weather at 0600' was clear; 
visibility 15 mi. plus; wind west-northwest 
10 kt.; altimeter 29.97. 

Accordingly, a flight plan was prepared by 

■All times herein are Eastern Standard and 


the crew which specified a flight from Logan 
Airport, Boston, to LaCuardia Airport, in 
accordance with Visual Flight Rules (VFR), 
at a cruising altitude of S.500 ft., true air- 
speed 260 kt., and an estimated time en 
route of 45 min. 

Approximately 10 min. prior to departure, 
Supervisory Captain Sheldon E. Pangburn 
boarded the aircraft for the purpose of con- 
ducting a semi-annual flight cheek of Flight 
Engineer Thoman. With Captain Staples’ 
consent and in accordance with existing com- 
pany policies. Captain Pangburn occupied 
the left pilot’s seat and Captain Staples 
moved to the jump seat located immediately 
behind the captain’s station. 

The flight departed at 0705. 

The gross takeoff weight at the time of 
departure was 91,367 lb. — well under the 
maximum allowable gross takeoff weight of 
99,230 lb. Fuel on board weighed 17,600 
lb. and estimated fuel burnoff on the Boston- 
LaGuardia leg of the flight was 3,600 lb. 
There were 70 passengers on board. 

At 0752, Flight 361 called LaGuardia 
approach control and reported it was over 
New Rochelle VFR. The flight was then 
given the following clearance: “American 
361, LaGuardia approach control, at New 
Rochelle contact LaGuardia Tower 118.7, 
runway 31, wind west-northwest 18, alti- 
meter 30.02, field information taxi eight 
closed, runway 31, 4,900 ft. long, have you 
in radar contact . . .’’ Flight 361 acknowl- 
edged and at 0755 reported to LaCuardia 
Tower that it was overhead and gave the 
wind as northwest 20 kt. In the landing 
pattern at this time were American Airlines 
Flight 518, No. 1 to land; and N 5AA, a 
Beechcraft Travelaire, No. 2 to land; Flight 
361 was given the No. 3 position. 

Just prior to the time Flight 518 landed, 
the tower advised another aircraft, N 16D, 
then approaching the outer marker that the 
wind was northwest 30. Flight 518 and N 
5AA landed and reported clear of the run- 
way respectively at 0758 and 0759. At 
0800:27, in answer to a query from Flight 
361, the tower advised “361 cleared to 
land.” Flight 361 acknowledged, and this 
was the last radio transmission from the 

At 0800:50, N 16D called the tower and 
advised that an aircraft had crashed on the 
airport. Emergency equipment was imme- 
diately alerted. Tower personnel later stated 
that at the exact moment of the crash their 
attention was diverted from the American 
Electra by other local traffic. 

LaGuardia Airport is bounded on three 
sides by water. Because the surface of the 
airport is located at a height nearly level 
with the water, a dike has been constructed 
around the water sides of the aiiport to 
prevent flooding. This dike is 161 ft. from 
the approach end of runway 31 and stands 
approximately 8.2 ft. above the runway sur- 
face and 13.7 ft. above the mean water 


level. The dike is sodded and its top surface 
is somewhat irregular. 

Investigation revealed that all four main 
landing gear tires had struck the upper por- 
tion of the wooden bulkhead on the water- 
side of the dike. In going over the top of 
the dike the left wheels trenched to a depth 
of 91 in. and the right wheels 51 in., the 
difference being the result of the irregularity 
in the dike surface. Accurate measurements 
indicated that the aircraft was 0.2 deg. right 
wing down and that the main gear was 1.3 
ft. below the top of the dike at the time of 

Crash Description 

After initial impact. Nos. 1 and 2 pro- 
pellers struck the ground 131 ft. farther on. 
The aircraft rolled to the left and pitched 
down. In so doing it became inverted and 
reversed in direction. The left wing was torn 
off partially by the force against the landing 
gear when it struck the dike and tore com- 
pletely away on contact with the ground. 
Fire which started in the left wing imme- 
diately upon impact and in the right wing 
during the rollover was confined to the ex- 
terior of the aircraft until all passengers had 
evacuated. The aircraft was substantially 
damaged by impact forces, smoke, and fire. 
The aircraft came to rest approximately 
1 ,000 ft. from the dike and 1 50 ft. to the 
left of the left edge of the runway and head- 
ing approximately 153 deg. 

When the aircraft stopped sliding, its oc- 
cupants found themselves hanging upside 
down by their safety belts. To add to their 
confusion, the inside of the cabin was dark- 
ened by mud and soot on the outside window 
panes. The emergency lights in the cabin 
were not lighted. Some passengers were 
able to extricate themselves; others needed 
assistance. All on board turned to and did 
the job. The stewardesses, who were seated 
in the rear lounge, did an excellent job in 
allaying the fears of the passengers by quickly 
calling out the necessary instructions for de- 
barkation. The lounge exit door was dis- 
lodged and partially open. Hie stewardesses 
and a passenger moved this heavy door suffi- 
ciently for it to be used as an exit. They 
immediately called to the passengers to 
come to the rear of the aircraft. A passenger 
attempted to open the buffet service door 
but was unsuccessful. Everyone questioned 
said there was no panic and that the evacua- 
tion was orderly. 

Two airline mechanics witnessed the acci- 
dent as they were working on a parked air- 
craft only a short distance away. They 
jumped on their tug and drove to the scene 
immediately. They were able to extinguish a 
fire by the buffet service door and open it. 
Passengers immediately began using this ad- 
ditional means of egress. 

A male passenger (naval aviator) who was 
seated in the forward end of the aircraft 
opened an emergency' window exit and left 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 



AIRCRAFT DESIGN ENGINEERS 


Engineering is now underway on the strange look- 
ing bird pictured here. We call it the "Humming- 
bird,” and we are developing it for the U. S. Army. 
It is to utilize the jet ejector augmentation principle 
for VTOL aerial vehicles to fly straight up, straight 
down, hover in mid-air, and convert to conventional 
forward flying at speeds in excess of 500 miles per 
hour. Just one example of what is going on here 
at our Engineering Center where dreams come true. 
Like to join us? 


Openings in the fields of: Aircraft Design Engineering • En- 
gineering Drawings Checking • Aircraft Structures • Flutter 
and Vibration • Sonic Fatigue • Aircraft Specifications En- 
gineering • Reliability Engineering • Operations Research 
• Aircraft Research Engineering. 

Write to: Hugh L. Gordon, Professional Employment Mgr., 
Lockheed-Georgia Co., 834 W. Peachtree St., Atlanta 8, Ga. 
Department Z-75. 

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for em- 
ployment without regard to race, creed, color or national 


THE ENGINEERING CENTER 

LOCKHEED = COMPANY 

A DIVISION OF LOCKHEED AIRCRAFT CORPORATION 






i 


through it. As he ran around the nose of 
the aircraft in the direction of the hangar 
line he thought of the crew. They were still 
trapped in the cockpit, being unable to open 
the windows. This man located the external 
emergency cable release for the sliding win- 
dow on the captain's side, actuated it, and 
helped the crew through the window to 
safety. Before leaving tile accident scene the 
flight crew, stewardesses, and the two me- 
chanics thoroughly checked the aircraft to 
be certain all passengers were out. All on 
board were saved from a situation which at 
first looked completely hopeless. All 70 pas- 
sengers and the two stewardesses were able 
to leave the aircraft in approximately three 
minutes. Only three of the five available 
means of egress were used. 

Three aircraft were awaiting takeoff clear- 
ances at the runway ramp of runway 31 
when the accident occurred. The pilots of 
these aircraft said the approach appeared to 
be normal except that the aircraft was low 
when nearing the dike and appeared to 
settle. One of the pilots stated that he 
thought this aircraft was so low during the 
final portion of the approach that it might 
strike the dike and that lie considered trying 
to warn the pilot by radio but decided 
against it. 

Downdraft Encountered 

'Hie consensus of other witnesses was that 
the approach was normal in that it was 
neither a steep nor a low drag in approach. 

Captain Paugburn testified that he was 
attempting to land short and that for this 
type of landing the approach was completely 
normal until in the last few seconds a down- 
draft was encountered and the aircraft sank 
perceptibly. Tire left wing dropped, and 
corrective aileron was immediately applied. 
He said there was insufficient time to correct 
this by applying power. He further said that 
the air on final approach was smooth. After 
turning on final approach, power and air- 
speed were gradually reduced to 200 lip. pet 
engine and 1 20 kt. This airspeed was the 
last called by the first officer just before strik- 
ing the dike. 

The L-1S8 operating manual recom- 
mended airspeed o\'cr Ihc airport boundary 
is 119 kt. for an Electra aircraft weighing 
approximately 90,000 lb. 

The investigation did not reveal any evi- 
dence of malfunction or failure of the air- 
craft or its components prior to ground im- 
pact. Company records indicated that this 
aircraft had been maintained in accordance 
with prescribed procedures and was in an 
airworthy condition prior to the accident. 
Measurements of the propeller blade angles 
disclosed that they were positioned at ap- 
proximately 29 deg. Data supplied by the 
powerplant manufacturers revealed that at 
this blade angle the engine would be de- 
veloping 200 lip. at 120 kt. airspeed. 

The crew was properly certificated. 

Two pilots, whose aircraft landed a few 
minutes before N 6127A, differed in their 
statements with respect to turbulence en- 
countered. One, flying a Convair aircraft, 
said that when approaching LaGtiardia he 
lowered his flaps to 36 deg. instead of 39 
deg. (the fully down position) because of 
turbulence. I lie other pilot, flying a Beceh- 
eraft Travelairc aircraft, said that, "The air 
was moderately turbulent, a little on the 
choppy side. It was not excessive turbulence. 


My only impression is that had my seat belt 
not been fastened, it wouldn't have made 
any difference. I never hit any bumps that 
would have jolted me off my scat, 14c fur- 
ther stated that just before reaching the dike 
his airspeed and manifold pressure dropped 
slightly, accompanied by a mushing feeling, 
and he applied power as corrective action. 
High-Pressure Area 

On Sept. 14, 1960, a high-pressure area 
was centered 350-400 mi, southwest of New 
York City. This area of high pressure re- 
sulted in a flow of air at the surface from a 
northwest or west-northwest direction from 
the Virginia-North Carolina border north- 
ward through the mid-Atlantic states. On 
this day there were no fronts affecting the 
New York City area and the skies were vir- 
tually cloudless. Visibilities were unre- 
stricted, ranging from 1 2 to 15 mi. or more. 
The surface temperature at LaCuardia at 
the time of the accident was 57F, and the 
water temperature approximated 6S deg. 
During a period of 10 min. prior to and 
15 mill, after the accident, the recorded 
straight-line surface wind varied from 17.4 
to 21.7 kt. Instantaneous gusts are not 
shown on this type record. The wind meas- 
uring equipment is located on the roof of 
the control tower. 'Die wind recording ele- 
ment (triple register) is located 86 ft. above 
the ground, and the anemometer, wiiicli is 
connected to the direct reading dials in both 
the control tower and the U. S. Weather 
Bureau office, is located S3 ft. above the 
ground. The local weather observation, re- 
quired upon notification of an accident and 
recorded at 0S14, indicated that the sky was 
clear; visibility 1 5 mi.: and wind west-north- 
west 1 S kt., with gusts to 24 kt. There were 
no pilot reports containing w'ind or turbu- 
lence information available for teletype or 
radio transmission prior to the accident. 

Runway 13-31 is 5,347 ft. long and 150 
ft. wide. The available length of this run- 
way on the day of the accident was 4.S99.5 
ft. The decrease in length of 447.5 ft. was 
necessary because of construction in progress 
on mmvay 4-22. The unusable portion was 
measured from the approach end of runway 
1 3 and was marked by FAA approved mark- 
ing criteria painted on the runway. Thresh- 
old lights were present on both sides of 
the paved runway surface. The approach 
plate, dated Aug. 1 5, 1 960, was in the pilot's 
flight manual and it showed the decreased 
runway dimensions. 

Landing Distance 

'Ilie company's operations manual shows 
that for an Electra aircraft weighing approxi- 
mately S7.767 lb. and landing on rnnvvav 3 1 
under the conditions which prevailed Sep! 
14. 1960, the minimum effective runway 
length required is approximately 4,010 ft. 
This includes crossing the end of the hard 
surface at a height of 50 ft,, flaps in landing 
position, four engines operating, propeller 
braking limited to ground idle power, and 
braking bv means of wheel brakes. The 
above runway length of 4,010 ft. includes a 
safety factor of 40% of this distance. The 
actual stopping distance required was esti- 
mated to be about 2,500 ft. 

TSO-1S (Standards for Determining Ob- 
structions to Air Navigation), a publication 
of the FAA, prescribes, for an airport the 
size of LaGuardia, that any obstruction in- 



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LETTERS 


Rotor Blade Failure 

We wish to commend the Civil Aero- 
nautics Board lor its excellent detailed Ac- 
cident Investigation Report oi the Sikorsky 
S-5SC helicopter erasli of July 27, 196U, 
and your magazine for publishing this re- 
port in its issue of Aug. 2a, 1%1 (p. 102). 

It is through widespread dissemination of 
the possible causes of such accidents that 
intelligent action can be taken to eliminate 
potential trouble areas and faulty procedure. 

We were particularly interested in the 
CAB's opinion that, in view of the catas- 
trophic nature of a main rotor blade failure 
and tile demonstrated fact that a fatigue 
crack can develop and progress to failure 
in less than 6$ hours, that detailed inspec- 
tion should be spaced at shorter intervals. 
We would like to make known to FAA 
and industry a possible solution to spotting 
blade fatigue. 

The Kollmorgen Corp. has designed a 
compact, self-propelled flow camera which 
can traverse the rotor blade cavity. The 
camera is of modular construction, employ- 
ing phig-in illumination, viewing optics, 
film transport, and propulsion unit. A con- 
tinuous image is presented on 35 mm. film 
with resolution of the camera more than 
sufficient to sec such defects and hair-line 
cracks smaller than .010 in. 

This camera has a decided advantage 
over the present method of inspection usu- 
ally conducted with a borescope. The bore- 
scope method is a rather tedious process, 
and ineffective, since there is likelihood that 
defects will be overlooked. The Kollmorgen 
design in addition to its superior resolution 
offers a permanent record. 

We would be pleased to answer any 
questions from interested personnel in the 
government and industrv manufacturers. 

Once again please accept our thanks for 
vour continuing efforts to make air tras'el 
.,ifc for all. 

Zachary Fortunato 
Assistant Sales Manager 
Kollmorgen Corp. 
Northampton. Mass. 

Mach 3 Economies 

Capt. William L. Polhcmus poses some 
penetrating questions m his letter on the 
supersonic transport program in the Sept. 1 1 
issue of Aviation Week and Space Tecii- 
NOI.OCY (p. 126). Similar questions were 
raised at the 1ATA SST symposium in 
Montreal during April of this year, and the 
FAA lias no doubt deliberated at length 
on many of these. Few of these questions 
can he answered to our complete satisfac- 
tion by clear-cut technical analysts. Strong 
areas of black and white arc rare; the pre- 
dominant color is gray. Some questions 
fall in the province of policy, rather than 
of technology or economics 

For example, the ma|or question raised 
by Capt. Polhcmus, that of SST cruising 
speed, has strong implications in technology 
and economics. But the real decision is 
one of policy. The FAA has repeatedly 
stated its conclusion that the most value 
to national prestige mil be gained, not by 


Aviation Week welcomes the opinions 
of its readers on the issues raised in the 
magazine's editorial columns. Address 
letters to the Editor, Aviation Week, 
330 W. 42nd St., New York 36, N. Y. 
Try to keep letters under 500 words and 
give a genuine identification. We will 
not print anonymous letters, but names 
of writers will be withheld on request. 


offering the first SST, but by producing the 
best one. As a corollary, FAA has con- 
cluded that the "best" airplane is in the 
Mach 3 category; that is, that Mach 3 will 
provide the "best" service for the customer, 
best economies for the operators, best" 
im'cstnicut for the nation, etc. True, these 
conclusions lie within the gray areas. 

A decision for an early SST would be 
favorable to General Dynamics. Experience 
at Mach 2.0-2.4 with the K-1U6, and par- 
ticularly with the B-58, would be especially 
valuable in building the first SST, almost 
certain to fall in the Mach 2. 0-2.4 cate- 
gory. But the “gray area" analyses indicate 
that a Mach 3.0-3.2 airplane probably will 
have lower direct operating costs than any 
Mach 2.0-2.4 airplane. Aluminum struc- 
ture has a highly questionable service life at 
Mach 2 .0-2 .4; steel and titanium are con- 
siderably more promising at Mach 3.0-3.8 
than aluminum at the lower speeds. While 
the aluminum airplane may have a service 
life of some 10,000 hours, anything less 
than 20,000 hours will be an economic 
albatross to the airline depreciation sched- 
ules. 

Although the Mach 2 airplane is gen- 
erally expected to be smaller than the Mach 
3 SST, the slower airplane may create a 
greater sonic boom on the ground than the 
larger, faster airplanes. The Mach 3 SST 
will cruise at appreciably higher altitude 
and this altitude difference is predicted to 
be more powerful than the combined size- 
advantage of the smaller, slower air- 

Pending results of this year’s supersonic 
boom flight tests being conducted jointly 
by FAA / NASA / US AF. the FAA has tenta- 
tively established a minimum altitude limit 
of 41.000 ft. for supersonic flight. It is 
doubtful that an economical Mach 2.0-2.4 
SST is capable of subsonic climb to 41,000 
ft., followed by acceleration to supersonic 
speeds; it is virtually certain that an early 
Mach 2.0-2.4 airplane cannot do this. And, 
if it should be concluded that supersonic 
flight below 41,000 ft. will not create an 
unacceptable boom at the ground, the prob- 
lem of intermixing subsonic and supersonic 
traffic at the lower altitudes could well dis- 
qualify supersonic operation below the pres- 
ent tentative limit. 

Either of these questions, fatigue life of 
aluminum at elevated temperature or su- 
personic acceleration altitude capability, 
could render the Slid Aviation venture a 
complete failure. In addition, economic 
studies indicate that SSTs of much less 
than 100 passengers will be uneconomical 
at all speeds and ranges fat standard fares). 
Admittedly, all these conclusions are in the 
gray areas. But the strength of the evidence 
is in favor of the larger, faster airplane. 

One may reach, however, a strong, posi- 



specifically request it. is is unlikely that 
further intensive U. S. attention will be 
directed at the Mach 2.0-2.4 area. 

Charles L. Blake 
Transport Systems 
Development Manager 
General Dynamics Corp. 
San Diego. Calif. 

On Haystack Hill 

Thanks for the fine play you gave out 
Haystack Hill picture on the cover of the 
Aug. 21 issue of Aviation Week and 
Space Technology. The caption on the 
index page, however, confused construction 
of the Electronic Systems Division’s 150-ft. 
radome with the antenna that will go inside. 

The radome is composed of 930 triangles 
of glass-fibre-reinforced plastic membrane 
And of an inch thick. Your caption referred 
to 1 inch thick aluminum honeycomb, which 
is the surface of the 1 20 ft. wide reflector. 

Col. John D. Nottingham 
Director of Information 
Electronic Systems Division 
Air Force Systems Command 
Laurence C. Hanscoin Field 
Bedford. Mass. 

Hypergolic Fuels 

Several illustrations of the Titan II en- 
gines are pictured on p. 73 of your Sept. 1 1 
issue, with an accompanying caption that 
terminates with the sentence. Manic pat- 
tern of hypergolic fuels is more translucent 
than that of cryogenic propellants.” 

Lest anyone receive the mistaken impres- 
sion from this statement that cryogenic pro- 
pellants, per sc, arc non-hypcrgolic. 1 think 
it would be appropriate to qualify your 
statement somewhat. While liquid oxygen 
docs require a separate ignition system, 
liquid fluorine is indeed hypergolic with any 
storable or cryogenic fuel, in addition to 
being significantly more energetic. 

J. P. Greiten 

West Coast Representative 

Bell Aerosystems Co. 

Los Angeles, Calif. 


AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY, October 2, 1961 


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